A “Vaccine” Made From Mushrooms Could Save Bees
There is a good chance you heard about our problem with bees. They are dying out. And that poses a problem as they are one of the most important pollinators in nature.
Charles J Sharp [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
It was back in 2011 when the UN warned that if we don’t find a solution and save the bees a big disaster is heading our way. The decrease in bee population has serious impacts on agriculture as many plants are capable of producing on a very small number of fruits and seeds without them.
The “dying out” of bees is caused by something called the colony collapse disorder. Sadly, scientists aren’t still sure what exactly is causing it but they think it is caused by several different reasons but they mostly agree that among the reasons are pollution and viruses. Solving pollution is something that will take a long time and won’t be easy. But viruses – viruses are something we could potentially battle.
An article published recently the journal Scientific Reports says that “vaccinations” using a chemical found in certain mushrooms from the Fomes and Ganoderma genuses. An analysis performed on 50 bees from 30 different colonies showed that bees that consumed the chemical had 79 times less of the deformed wing virus levels and 45,000 times less of the Lake Sinai virus compared to the bees that didn’t consume the chemical. And both of the viruses are considered to be among the most dangerous ones.
Sources:
- https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/10/a-new-study-shows-how-mushrooms-could-save-bees-yes-mushrooms/
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32194-8
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