US Government Approves First-Ever Insects Vaccine

It's could be a game-changer for a specie that suffering from a disease.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted a conditional license for a vaccine developed by Dalan Animal Health to protect honeybees from American foulbrood disease. This serious bacterial disease, caused by Paenibacillus larvae, weakens and kills hives and currently has no cure. In some parts of the US, foulbrood has been found in 25% of hives, requiring beekeepers to destroy infected colonies and administer antibiotics to prevent further spread.

The vaccine, which will initially be available to commercial beekeepers, works by incorporating some of the bacteria into the royal jelly fed to queen bees. The queens then gain some of the vaccine in their ovaries, and the developing bee larvae have immunity to foulbrood as they hatch. Studies by Dalan suggest that this could significantly reduce death rates from the disease. The vaccine could also potentially be used to create vaccines for other bee-related diseases, such as the European version of foulbrood.

The news of this breakthrough is welcome, as honeybees have been exposed to a range of diseases that decimate large numbers of colonies and require significant intervention by beekeepers to keep numbers up. The US is particularly reliant on managed honeybee colonies for food pollination, with hives frequently transported across the country to pollinate everything from almonds to blueberries. This is because many wild bee species are in alarming decline due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and the climate crisis, leading to concerns around a global crisis in insect numbers that threatens ecosystems and human food security and health.