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Effects of dietary crude protein levels on development, antioxidant status, and total midgut protease activity of honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica)

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Abstract

The effects of different levels of dietary crude protein on the development, antioxidant enzymatic activity, and total midgut protease activity of honey bees were investigated in the study. A total of 30 colonies of bees with sister queens were used in the test. Dietary treatments were pure rape pollen (Control) and pollen substitutes (PS) with crude protein (CP) levels at 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 35% (designated as PS15, PS20, PS25, PS30, and PS35), respectively. We compared the effects of these diets on honey bees by measuring diet consumption, bee development (egg hatch, pupation success, and pupal weight), and the protein content of emergent adult bees, their antioxidant status and the activity of their midgut digestive proteases. Bees consumed significantly more (P < 0.001) natural pollen than any PS, and bees fed PS had similar diet consumption over the entire experimental period. However, the total protein intake was varied (P < 0.05). PS with a protein level about 30% was recognized as excellent quality diet for maximum body weight, highest protein content and antioxidant enzymatic activity, and PS with a protein rate about 35% exerted the greatest effect on increasing percentage of hatch and percentage of pupation. All these results indicate that PS appeared to be a valuable proteinaceous food approximated to the pollen, and 30∼35% of dietary protein level was optimal to maintain the colony development.

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Acknowledgments

We thank staff apiarist G. L. Zhang and students F. Liu, B. L. Zheng, Z. Jiao, G. Y. Wang, Y. J. Li, Y. Wang, L. T. Ma, Z. F. Wu, Y. D. Zhang, G. Zhang, and X. B. Hang for assistance with data collection. We express our cordial thanks to Y. Wang and P. Liu for the linguistic correction of our paper. This research was financially supported by the earmarked fund for Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System (CARS-45) and Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (no. 200903006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, Shandong, People’s Republic of China, 271018

    Chengcheng Li, Baohua Xu, Qianqian Feng & Weiren Yang

  2. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research Centre, PO Box 3000, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, T1J 4B1

    Yuxi Wang

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  1. Chengcheng Li
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  2. Baohua Xu
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Correspondence to Weiren Yang.

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Manuscript editor: Klaus Hartfelder

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Li, C., Xu, B., Wang, Y. et al. Effects of dietary crude protein levels on development, antioxidant status, and total midgut protease activity of honey bee (Apis mellifera ligustica). Apidologie 43, 576–586 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-012-0126-0

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