Sunflower pollen could improve insect health

During the past decade, scientists have been facing the alarming decline of bee populations. According to one study, sunflower plants could be a solution.

Pollen from bright yellow flowering plants is thought to prevent infection of bumblebees by a pathogen called crithidia bombi, and protect European bees from nosema ceranae, Both are thought to play a role in the fall of bee numbers.

The study was published in Natureaffiliated newspaper Scientific reports experts are trying to save bees and their crucial role in pollination, thus protecting plant biodiversity and food crops around the world.

What a bee eats can help her immune system, and bees largely get their fats and pollen proteins, with each flower providing different amounts. Sunflower could be a relatively easy and natural way to improve the health of bees, say the authors.

According to researchers, sunflower could improve the health of bees. Getty Images

Related: The dead of bees: Scientists warn that the common killer glyphosate kills bees

However, sunflowers do not seem to be the panacea for all the ills of a bee. Honey bees receiving sunflower pollen were as likely to die as those who had not eaten and were four times more likely to die than honey bees receiving buckwheat pollen. The drones did not see it, however.

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Jonathan Giacomini, author of the study, estimates that the potential properties of sunflower pollen that stimulate health are interesting given the value of 2 million hectares cultivated in North America and 10 million hectares in Europe. Applied Ecology Student at North Carolina State University.

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst studied bumble bees from farms containing sunflower and noticed that insects had lower levels of Crithidia infections compared to those who did not do it. The team also conducted laboratory studies on the presence of pathogens in bumble bees and honey bees to reach their conclusion.

Rebecca Irwin, professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University and co-author of the study, said, "We have tried other monofloral pollens or pollen from a flower, but we seem to have reached the big lot with sunflower pollen. None of the others we studied had this constant positive effect on bumblebee health. "

Scientists are racing to understand why bee populations are exhausting. Getty Images

Although sunflowers do not provide all the nutrients a bee needs (they do not contain a lot of protein and lack of amino acids), the plants could be an important supplement to the varied diet of bees, Irwin said. Then, the team wishes to assay different species of bees with sunflower pollen in order to compare its effects.

Irwin said, "We do not know if sunflower pollen helps host bees fight pathogens or if sunflower pollen acts on pathogens."

The study comes a day after scientists who drafted a separate study warned that a common weed killer could destroy bee populations around the world.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin treated honey bees with glyphosate and found that they seemed to damage the intestinal bacteria that populate their body, the microbiome.

Erick Motta, a graduate student who conducted the study published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Told Newsweek At the time: "We rely on bees for pollinating flowering plants, which includes many crops, so we need to optimize their health."