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Effect of organic acids and probiotics on intestinal health of Apis mellifera

  • Veterinary Microbiology - Research Paper
  • Published:
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Abstract

Apis mellifera is an important pollinator that has a prominent impact on crops’ ecological balance. Beekeeping provides us with more valuable products like honey, pollen, propolis, beeswax, and royal jelly. The ongoing era demands more scientific and environment-friendly strategies to improve the beekeeping sector internationally. Nowadays, the use of synbiotics (a combination of probiotics and prebiotics) has been declared as the need of the hour. However, little bit studies have been carried out in this regard. To improve the beekeeping sector in Pakistan, a study was designed to exploration of probiotic and organic acids on bee tissue ileum (small intestine). 108 Colony forming units (C.F.Us) of Bacillus clausii and Lactobacillus brevis were provided with and without mixing in 1.96% acetic acid, 2.91% acetic acid, and 2.99% lactic acid to caged worker bees under controlled laboratory conditions. The provision did not affect the intestine harmfully. The mean intestinal lumen diameters (μm2) were 133.33 ± 8.82, 63.33 ± 3.33, 186.67 ± 72.19, 250.00 ± 28.87, 166.67 ± 17.64, 193.33 ± 46.31, and 140.00 ± 61.10 in experiments (1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 respectively) compared to control’s 113.33 ± 38.44. Worker bees with better digestion conditions prove honeybee’s health and efficiency.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Shahid Ali, associate professor of Botany at F.G Degree College Rahwali Cantt for providing assistance in statistical analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Honeybee research garden, Institute of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Ali Hasan & Javed Iqbal Qazi

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan

    Fouzia Tabssum

  3. Vasil Gulisashvili Forest Institute, Agricultural University of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Natalia Kharabadze

  4. Applied and Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, Institute of Zoology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Ali Hussain

Authors
  1. Ali Hasan
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  2. Javed Iqbal Qazi
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  3. Fouzia Tabssum
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  4. Natalia Kharabadze
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  5. Ali Hussain
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Contributions

JIQ conceived research and designed experiments; FT and NK participated in the design and interpretation of the data; AH performed experiments and analysis; AH and AH wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Javed Iqbal Qazi.

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Responsible Editor: Maria Aparecida Scatamburlo Moreira

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Hasan, A., Qazi, J.I., Tabssum, F. et al. Effect of organic acids and probiotics on intestinal health of Apis mellifera. Braz J Microbiol 54, 3231–3236 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-023-01121-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-023-01121-z

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