The honey bee immune system is like an army standing at the ready to
respond to a parasite (virus, bacterium, fungus, worm, etc) in order to
prevent it from reproducing.
To do so, it must recognize some identifier (an antigen) from that parasite
as an "target"  to which it must respond.
The purpose of a vaccine is to provide a honey bee's immune system with a
specific target that it may not have had on its "list" of enemies.

The problem for vaccine developers is to come up with a way to "prime" the
immune system with a target antigen, without initiating unwanted infection,
toxicity, or immune overreaction.
The issue is not whether honey bee vaccines are possible, but rather
whether one can be effective, without unwanted adverse effects.

The AFB vaccine duplicates a natural immune-priming method already used by
honey bees -- that of the queen incorporating snippets of target bacterial
proteins onto vitellogenin molecules in the egg.
It thus is very "natural," and theoretically plausible.
We just need to run some field trials to determine whether it is effective.



Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com

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