While it is already an established belief that honey bees do inject their offspring with vaccines to ward off bacteria and viruses, it was only recently that they found out how the queen bees are able to do so.
A research conducted by a team of experts found that bees deposit proteins in the fatty part of their heads and abdomens. The protein, known as vitellogenin regulates the foraging patterns and also serves as an antioxidant that helps the bee queen and bee foragers remain vibrant and rejuvenating. But more to that, researchers discovered that this behavior also functions as an immunizer that protects the bees from diseases.
"The process by which bees transfer immunity to their babies was a big mystery until now. What we found is that it's as simple as eating," Dr. Gro Amdam, the study's principal researcher who also works with the Arizona State University, observed.
The team's findings resulted from 15 years of incessant investigation on vitellogenin. Dalial Freitak, who works for the University of Helsinki and also one of the study's researchers, quipped that he was studying bee immunization since he was taking up his doctorate degree. His efforts eventually came into fruition 10 years later as he was able to confirm that he and his team's result seemed like "an important part of the puzzle."
The researchers explained that the queen bee does not leave her colony and it is the forager bees that search for food. Worker bees eventually gather pathogens while gathering food which the queen bee acquires through her food known as the "royal jelly." However, when the pathogens are also in the queen bee's gut, the body stores them into the insect's "fat body," a gland that functions as the liver where they are glued to vitellogenin. The vitellogen then transports the pathogens via the bloodstream to the developing eggs. This serves as the immunization of the baby bees even before they are born.
The researchers hope that their findings would help them design an "edible" vaccine to help honey bees fight strong types of pathogens, like American Foul Brood, which currently they do not stand a chance. American Foul Brood is one of those pathogens that wreak havoc within bee colonies.
