Ameliorative Effects of Phytochemical Ingestion on Viral Infection in Honey Bees.

ABSTRACT: Honey bee viruses are capable of causing a wide variety of devastating effects, but effective treatments have yet to be discovered. Phytochemicals represent a broad range of substances that honey bees frequently encounter and consume, many of which have been shown to improve honey bee health. However, their effect on bee viruses is largely unknown. Here, we tested the therapeutic effectiveness of carvacrol, thymol, p-coumaric acid, quercetin, and caffeine on viral infection by measuring their ability to improve survivorship in honey bees inoculated with Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) using high-throughput cage bioassays. Among these candidates, caffeine was the only phytochemical capable of significantly improving survivorship, with initial screening showing that naturally occurring

SUBMITTER: Hsieh EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7602108 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature