Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

, Volume 68, Issue 11, pp 1777–1784 | Cite as

Pathogen-associated self-medication behavior in the honeybee Apis mellifera

  • Bogdan I. Gherman
  • Andreas Denner
  • Otilia Bobiş
  • Daniel S. Dezmirean
  • Liviu A. Mărghitaş
  • Helge Schlüns
  • Robin F. A. Moritz
  • Silvio Erler
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

Honeybees, Apis mellifera, have several prophylactic disease defense strategies, including the foraging of antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral compounds of plant products. Hence, honey and pollen contain many compounds that prevent fungal and bacterial growth and inhibit viral replication. Since these compounds are also fed to the larvae by nurse bees, they play a central role for colony health inside the hive. Here, we show that honeybee nurse bees, infected with the microsporidian gut parasite Nosema ceranae, show different preferences for various types of honeys in a simultaneous choice test. Infected workers preferred honeys with a higher antibiotic activity that reduced the microsporidian infection after the consumption of the honey. Since nurse bees feed not only the larvae but also other colony members, this behavior might be a highly adaptive form of therapeutic medication at both the individual and the colony level.

Keywords

Honeybee Honey Antimicrobial activity Therapeutic self-medication Nosema ceranae Social immunity 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Victoriţa Bonta for the help with determining antibiotic contaminants and the two reviewers for most helpful comments. Financial support was granted by the project RoBeeTech (grant POS CCE 206/20.07.2010 SMIS code 618/12460 to L.A. Mărghitaş, D.S. Dezmirean, and R.F.A. Moritz) and an ERASMUS MUNDUS exchange program grant (A.D.). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Bogdan I. Gherman
    • 1
  • Andreas Denner
    • 1
  • Otilia Bobiş
    • 1
  • Daniel S. Dezmirean
    • 1
  • Liviu A. Mărghitaş
    • 1
  • Helge Schlüns
    • 1
    • 4
  • Robin F. A. Moritz
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
  • Silvio Erler
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Apiculture and SericultureUniversity of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary MedicineCluj-NapocaRomania
  2. 2.Institut für Biologie, Molekulare ÖkologieMartin-Luther-Universität Halle-WittenbergHalle (Saale)Germany
  3. 3.Department of Zoology and EntomologyUniversity of PretoriaPretoriaSouth Africa
  4. 4.Behavioural BiologyUniversity of OsnabrückOsnabrückGermany

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