• Journal of Apiculture
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.269-275
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• 2018

Beekeeping status of Apis cerana with emphasis of experiences overcoming sacbrood virus disease are presented. Social bee fauna are rich in Vietnam with 6 honeybee species (Apis laboriosa, Apis dorsata, Apis mellifera, Apis cerana, Apis andrenifomis, Apis florea); 8 stingless bee species (Trigona laeviceps, Trigona ventralis, Trigona pagdeni, Trigona gressitti, Trigona fuscobalteata, Trigona capenteri, Trigona scintillans Trigona iridipenis) and 2 bumble bee species (Bumbus haemorrhoidalis, B. breviceps). All of them are native except A. mellifera which was introduced in1887. These bees are slated for conservation by the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development. Honey and other bee products are mainly harvested from 3 species including A. cerana, A. mellifera and A. dorsata. The manageable species (A. cerana and A. mellifera) are increasing in number, reaching about 1,500,000 beehives. Vietnam is the second largest honey exporter in Asia, with a total of about 48,000 tons of honey exported to the international market in 2014. A. cerana plays an important role in poverty alleviation in mountainous and remote areas of Vietnam. Honeybee suffers from various diseases of Sacbrood virus disease (SBV), European foulbrood (EFB), Nosema, and parasitic mites of Tropilaelaps mercedes and Varroa destructor. Most of these diseases can be resolved with biocontrol methods. For the parasitic mites, Vietnamese beekeepers usually apply formic acid.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.145-149
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• 1999

This study was designed to examine therapeutic effect of natural honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom in pigs with arthritis. Pigs were assigned to treated and nontreated control groups. In treated group, 51 pigs were given natural honeybee venom once a day for 5 consecutive days. Acupoints of Sam-li, Jok-su and Pal-ja were stung by the natural honey bees. In control group, 46 pigs were intramuscularly injected with a standard dosage of penicillin G (400,000 IU/kg of body weight) once a day for 5 consecutive days. On day 5 following bee venom therapy, 73.9% of control pigs and 86.2% of pigs in treated group recovered from arthritis. Bee acupuncture therapy did not show any side effects such as allergy, intoxication, hemorrhage, or infection. It might be concluded that honeybee venom therapy was effective in controlling of pig with arthritis.

• Journal of Apiculture
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.295-302
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• 2017

Avoidance behavior is an important life history strategy to survive hazardous environment. The experiment was conducted to detect the avoidance tendency of the honeybee Apis mellifera against commonly used pesticides in apple production. Choice test given only 50% sucrose solution and pesticide-mixed sucrose solution as food estimated the avoidance in laboratory. Most of the acaricides and fungicides tested were shown avoided. Among insecticides, honeybee showed strong avoidance to cyhexatine, carbosulfan and fenpyroximate but low to diflubenzuron, tebufenpyrad, and acrinathrin. Avoidance behavior to neonicotinoid insecticides showed bifurcated; highly avoided from thiacloprid, acetamiprid while less avoided from imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and dinotefuran. From the field study, abamectin, fenthion, amitraz and acequinocyl showed highly avoided while fungicide of fenarimol, acaricides of acrinathrin and phosphamidon, IGR insecticide of diflubenzuron, neonicotinoid insecticide of imidacloprid, and carbamate insecticide of carbaryl showed less avoidance in the field. These results partly explained high bee poisoning from carbaryl in apple flowering period, and neonicotinoids during season.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.225-230
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• 2016

Objectives: Mellitine, a major component of bee venom (BV, Apis mellifera), is more active against gram positive than gram negative bacteria. Moreover, BV has been reported to have multiple effects, including antibacterial, antivirus, and anti-inflammation effects, in various types of cells. In addition, wasp venom has been reported to have antibacterial properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of BV against selected gram positive and gram negative bacterial strains of medical importance. Methods: This investigation was set up to evaluate the antibacterial activity of BV against six grams positive and gram negative bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia mallei and Burkholderia pseudomallei. Three concentrations of crude BV and standard antibiotic (gentamicin) disks as positive controls were tested by using the disc diffusion method. Results: BV was found to have a significant antibacterial effect against E. coli, S. aureus, and Salmonella typhyimurium in all three concentrations tested. However, BV had no noticeable effect on other tested bacteria for any of the three doses tested. Conclusion: The results of the current study indicate that BV inhibits the growth and survival of bacterial strains and that BV can be used as a complementary antimicrobial agent against pathogenic bacteria. BV lacked the effective proteins necessary for it to exhibit antibacterial activity for some specific strains while being very effective against other specific strains. Thus, one may conclude, that Apis mellifera venom may have a specific mechanism that allows it to have an antibacterial effect on certain susceptible bacteria, but that mechanism is not well understood.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2016

The aim of the study was performed to examine the anticariogenic potential of purified bee venom (Apis mellifera L., PBV) collected using bee venom collector from cariogenic bacteria, Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sanguis, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and Fusobacterium nucleatum. The anticariogenic effect of purified bee venom was evaluated by agar well diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentraion (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), and postantibiotic effect (PAE). The human lower gingiva epithelial cell cytotoxicity of purified bee venom was also evaluated. Purified bee venom exhibited significant inhibition of bacterial growth of S. mutans, S. sanguis, P. gingivalis, and F. nucleatum with MIC value of 0.68, 0.85, 3.49, and $2.79{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The MBC value of purified bee venom against S. mutans, S. sanguis, P. gingivalis, and F. nucleatum was 1.34, 1.67, 8.5, and $6.8{\mu}g/ml$. Furthermore, the results of PAE values against S. mutans, S. sanguis, P. gingivalis, and F. nucleatum showed the bacterial effect with 3.3, 3.45, 2.0, and 2.0. The concentration below 1 mg/ml of purified bee venom had no cytotoxicity in the human lower gingiva epithelial cell. These results suggested that purified bee venom have great potenial as anticariogenic agents.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.144-148
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• 2021

This study aimed to analyze the content and composition of a biological amine, cadaverine, isolated from the venom of worker honeybees (Apis mellifera L.). This biological amine―which has diverse functionality, such as anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects―has not been previously reported in bee venom. An assay completed in 13 minutes was developed for the cadaverine present in the bee venom using an ultra-performance liquid chromatograph and a Halo C18 column with acetonitrile and water as the mobile phase. The specificity, accuracy, and precision of the assay were verified, and the assay was validated. The linearity for cadaverine in the bee venom was R2=0.99 or above, indicating a moderate level. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were both 0.3 ㎍/ml, and the rate of recovery was 97.6%-99.1%. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the intra-day precision and inter-day precision for cadaverine was 0.25%-0.44% and 0.25%-1.25%, respectively, with an RSD that fell within 5% indicating excellent precision. Through this novel assay, it was found that the mean content of cadaverine was 1.10±0.05 mg/g. Our results indicated that the linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, and rate of recovery of the cadaverine assay were of a satisfactory level, and the cadaverine content of the bee venom was ably determined. This study provides basic data on cadaverine in bee venom, which will prove useful in further studies on the bioactivity of this component.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.99-102
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• 2012

Bee venom (Apis mellifera L. BV) has been used as a cosmetic ingredient for anti-ageing, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial functions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the acute toxicity after a single dermal administration of BV, BV was administered to 2 groups of Sprague-Dawley (SD) male and female rats (5 animals/group) at doses of 0 and 1,500 mg/kg body weight (BW). Mortality, clinical signs, body weight changes and gross findings were continually monitored for 15 days following the single dose. There were no unscheduled deaths in any groups during the study period. No BV related clinical signs and body weight changes were observed in any groups during the study period. There were no abnormal gross findings at necropsy on day 15 after the treatment. On the basis of the above results, it was concluded that there were no treatment-related effect on mortality, clinical signs, body weight changes and gross findings in SD rats treated with a single dermal dose of BV at dose of 1,500 mg/kg BW. Therefore, the approximate lethal dose of BV was considered to be over 1,500 mg/kg/day for both sexes of rats. BV may provide a developmental basis for a cosmetic ingredient or external application for topical uses.

• Journal of Apiculture
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2020

Bee (Apis mellifera L.) venom is used for the treatment of various human diseases due to its known anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. This study investigated the effect of purified bee venom (PBV) on adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. There was no cytotoxicity while cells were treated with PBV by various concentrations. In the PBV treated cells increases in fat storage were inhibited and also confirmed by oil red o staining. To understand the underlying mechanism at the molecular level were examined on the expression of the genes involved in adipogenesis by using real-time PCR. In this cell model, the mRNA level of adipogenic genes such as peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptors gamma (PPARγ) and CAAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha(C/EBPα) were decreased by PAE treatment, comparing with those of control group. Theses results suggest that PBV inhibits adipocyte differentiation in 3T3-L1 cells and can be used as an efficient natural substance to manage anti-obesity.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.17-21
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• 2020

The response of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) pollination on canola yield with reference to most suitable number of bee hive need per unit area of crops in order to meet optimum pollination needs and better economic yields by comparing number of hives and yield components an experiment was conducted at Beekeeping and Hill Fruit Pests Research, Station Rawalpindi during 2017-18 in complete randomized block design with two sets of four treatments for comparison: 1 hive acre^-1, 2 hives acre^-1, 3 hives acre^-1 and 0 hive acre^-1. The hives were kept inside the experimental area. Parameters were assessed: pollination density, pollinator's diversity, agronomic and economic yield. In case of pollination density, the cumulative mean abundance bee species revealed that at 1200 hours, Apis mellifera was the most abundant and frequent visitor with a mean population of 8.69 bees/plant followed by A. dorsata (0.72), Syrphid fly (0.2) and other pollinators. Minimum bee population was observed during 1400 hours, mainly due to the closure of flowers and partially due to high temperature (>35℃). Pollinator diversity revealed that A. mellifera was the most dominant pollinator of Brassica crop with highest abundance (71%). A. dosata ranked 2^nd (16%) followed by A. florea (6%) respectively.

• Journal of Apiculture
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.283-295
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• 2018

As Sacbrood virus (SBV), a causative agent of larval death and colony collapse in Apis cerana honey bee, is prevalent and poses one of the most significant threats to the Korean apiculture, development of methods to counter this viral disease is urgently needed. In this study we tested some SBV controlling methods, such as requeen, shook swam, adding Apis mellifera and spraying yogurt to SBV inoculated colony. Colony size measured by number of sealed brood and adult were evaluated every 15 days until two months while instances of recurrence were recorded up to five months after applying treatment methods. We also test the effects of yogurt on healthy and SBV-infected larvae at both in vitro reared larvae and colony level. Our result showed that all SBV controlling methods had similar success rates with respect to elimination of SBV clinical symptom up to 30 days post treatment. Mix-species and spraying yogurt method had similar pattern of sealed brood and adult number and higher than that of other SBV controlling methods up to 45 days post treatment. These two groups also showed the lower percentage of SBV recurrence (50% and 66.7%) at 120 days post treatment than other group that mostly colony had clinical symptom. Result on in vitro reared larvae challenged with yogurt showed that yogurt have neither harmless on healthy larvae nor remedial effect on SBV infected larvae. However, at colony level, colony in group received yogurt treatment removed significantly more SBV-infected larvae, SBV-killed larvae, and even healthy larvae in comparison to the control, suggested that yogurt could trigger the hygienic behavior of nurse bee. Our results recommended that it is practical in beekeeping by adding A. mellifera and spraying yogurt to control SBV in A. cerana colony.