Martha Gilliam wrote:

> Our studies of floral and corbicular pollen and of bee bread stored over time in comb cells of the hive, all from the same plant species, demonstrated that pollen from a flower changes microbiologically and biochemically as soon as a honey bee collects it. Bees moisten pollen with regurgitated nectar or honey to facilitate packing into the corbiculae, add glandular secretions, and inoculate it with microbes.

> Fungi (molds and yeasts) and Bacillus spp. were the predominant microbes in pollen and bee bread. Of the total microbial isolates (n=391) from pollen and bee bread, 55% of the pollen and 85% of the bee bread isolates were fungi (Gilliam, unpublished). It appeared that honey bees engaged in `microbial farming' by inoculating pollen with specific micro-organisms as they collected and packed it for transport to the colony.

> The majority of molds were penicillia, Mucorales, and aspergilli. Floral pollen had the largest number of mold isolates but the fewest species. Floral pollen, corbicular pollen, and bee bread stored over time in comb cells differed in the predominant molds present (Mucor sp. in floral pollen, penicillia in corbicular pollen and in bee bread stored for 1 week, aspergilli and penicillia in bee bread stored for 3 weeks, and aspergilli in bee bread stored for 6 weeks).


Jay D Evans wrote

> We describe wide-ranging endogenous bacterial taxa that are capable of inhibiting an important honey bee pathogen and show considerable variation within and across colonies in the distribution of these taxa. Most of the bacteria cultivated in this study belonged to the genus Bacillus, a result that is consistent with the high frequency of isolates placed in this genus by Gilliam and colleagues. Among the Bacillus species, the majority fell into the Bacillus cereus group. -- Antagonistic interactions between honey bee bacterial symbionts and implications for disease

FYI

> Bacillus cereus has been recognized as an agent of food poisoning since 1955. There are only a few outbreaks a year reported by CDC. Between 1972 and 1986, 52 outbreaks of food-borne disease associated with B. cereus were reported to the CDC (in 2003, there were two), but this is thought to represent only 2% of the total cases which have occurred during these periods. It is not a reportable disease, and usually goes undiagnosed. B. cereus causes two types of food-borne illnesses. One type is characterized by nausea and vomiting and abdominal cramps and has an incubation period of 1 to 6 hours. -- Bacillus cereus Food Poisoning (c) 2008 Kenneth Todar University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Bacteriology

-- 
Peter L Borst
Danby, NY USA
42.35, -76.50
http://picasaweb.google.com/peterlborst

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