Co-exposition effects on honey bee Apis meliffera olfactory learning performance
2015
Papach, Anna
In the last ten years honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies have been in decline. There are multiple causes that contribute to that rapid downtrend. Among them are pests and pathogens, land-use intensification, habitat loss and fragmentation. In most of the cases, the consequences of co-exposition are unknown as only few studies addressed these questions so far. Here we would like to investigate the impact of co-expositon between a pathogen and a neonicotinoid on honey bee survival and learning performances. Yet all the studies about the influence of pesticides on learning and memory abilities are conducted on honey bees that were exposed to pesticide after emergence. But it is known that neonicotinoids are also stored inside the hives in pollen, nectar and brood is exposed to it. In our work we exposed honey bee larvae to American Foulbrood and to sub-lethal doses of Thiamethoxam (chronic exposure). First we hypothesise that the application of two treatments may have synergistic effect and induce higher mortality rates on larvae. We also tested the impact of this co-exposition, during the larval stage, on impairment of learning and memory abilities as well as the social behaviour of the honey bee workers. We used the standard olfactory conditioning procedure that is based on Proboscis Extension Response (PER) to study the changes in learning and memory abilities caused by the co-exposition effect.
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