Effects of a dietary supplement based on abscisic acid, coumaric acid, omega acid 3-6 and aminoacid in Apis mellifera colonies

FACUNDO RAMOS; NICOLÁS SZAWARSKI; MEROI ARCERITO F.R.; IGLESIAS A.; MITTON G.; GIMÉNEZ-MARTÍNEZ PABLO; DE PIANO FIORELLA; EGUARAS M.; MAGGI M.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencia 2019; 2019

 Currently, the majority of GeneralPueyrredón landscapes are dominated by the modern agriculture,characterized by high percentages of monocultives and aconsiderable amount of agrochemicals application. In thiscontext, the regional apiculture has been affected by a drasticreduction in floral resources, leading to a diet deterioration andhealth weakening in Apis mellifera. In an attempt to improveparameters of strength in bee colonies, the present studyassessed the effectiveness of a dietary supplement (COMP),made of abscisic acid (ABA) 10 μM, coumaric acid (CUM) 600 μM,protein hydrolyzate (HID) 14 μl/ml, omega acids 3-6 (O3/O6) 6μl/ml and sugar syrup 2:1 (sugar:water). First, in vitro toxicity ofCOMP, and its individual components, were evaluated bylaboratory bioassays. For this purpose, nurse bees were fed withthese compounds for 96 hours. Survival rates were calculated,using a Kaplan-Meier test, and compared with those calculatedfrom bees fed with syrup 2:1 (sugar: water) as controls. On theother hand, a field trial was performed, consisting in beehives fed(4 colonies per treatment) with COMP for 30 days during summerseason. Every 15 days and at the end of the trial, the adult beepopulation, the amount of cells covered by brood, honey andpollen from each treated colony were recorded and comparedwith the respective controls, using two- way ANOVA test. Theresults obtained showed that COMP is palatable and non-toxic toA. mellifera (mean ± SE: 94.23 ± 3.65 % survival), producing anincrease in the open-breeding population (p= 0.00825), with aconsequent growth in pollen reserves (p= 0.0504). Thus, COMPcould become a new nutritional tool in apiculture developmentunder current stressful factors. Based on previous works, likelyCOMP induces immunological and detoxification mechanism inbee health.