1. The fate of bacterial spores ingested by adult honey bees
- Author
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Paul A. Hartman and Santiago B. Plurad
- Subjects
Larva ,animal structures ,American foulbrood ,biology ,fungi ,Bacillus cereus ,Foregut ,biology.organism_classification ,Endospore ,Microbiology ,Spore ,Cereus ,Bacillus thuringiensis ,bacteria ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics - Abstract
Adults of American foulbrood susceptible (Van Scoy) and resistant (Brown) lines of honey bees ( Apis mellifera ) were starved, then fed measured doses of spores of Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus cereus , or Bacillus larvae . After time intervals of 15, 30, 60, and 120 minutes, the bees were killed, the digestive tract of each was removed, and the number of viable spores remaining in each of three intestinal segments was determined. The Brown line was more efficient than the Van Scoy line in spore removal, although the differences between lines were not large. Removal of spores was more rapid in the foregut than in the other two sections. B. larvae spores were removed or destroyed more rapidly than spores of B. thuringiensis (at least in the foregut), while spores of B. cereus were removed rather slowly.
- Published
- 1965
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