Role of Some Wild Herbal Extracts in Management of American Foulbrood in Honeybee Colonies

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Egypt

2 Economic Entomology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura Univ., Egypt,

3 Beekeeping Research Department, Plant Protection Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

American
foulbrood (AFB) is one of the most contagious and dangerous among honey bee
diseases. The causative agent is the Gram-positive bacterium, Paenibacillus
larvae. The crude methanolic extracts of three wild herbs and tylosin
antibiotic were tested against artificially AFB-infected honey bee colonies.
The laboratory tests revealed the safety of these crude herbal extracts for
adult honey bee workers. Malcolmia
pygmaea (Cruciferae) extract was the
most potent in control the AFB disease
followed by Marrubium alysson (Labiatae) and Lobularia arabica(Cruciferae)
was the least effective herb.
Tylosin antibiotic was the weakest against the disease control, indicating to
the bacterial resistance. Hence, the three crude extracts surpassed tylosin
antibiotic, as well as they increased the workers brood rearing activity and
the amounts of stored honey and pollen when compared with the control colonies.
Perhaps, they enhanced the honey bees immune system. This suggests their
suitability as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents in the control of other
honey bee diseases and in food and drug industries. Further detailed studies
are required to determine the constituents of the three herbal extracts and to
evaluate their therapeutic applications.

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