Effect of diets with different protein contents on the longevity of Apis mellifera Africanized bees exposed to ingestion of sublethal dose of the insecticide imidacloprid

• Grant number: 17/14424-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2017
• End date: September 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo de Oliveira Orsi
• Grantee: Larissa Aparecida Marquesin
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The increase in the use of agrochemicals in the ecosystems has favored the contamination of the sources of nectar, pollen and water that are collected by the bees, damaging their maintenance. The pollen collected by bees provides essential proteins for the proper development of bees, maintaining their colonies. In addition, it provides essential amino acids for synthesis of enzymes that act on the detoxification system of these insects, which can interfere with resistance to pesticides. Thus, the objective of the present work is to evaluate the influence of artificial diets developed with different protein levels in the longevity of bees chronically exposed to insecticide imidacloprid under laboratory conditions. Initially, the LD50 of the imidacloprid insecticide will be determined in the ingestion test and later the sublethal dose (LD50 / 100) will be used to contaminate the artificial diets supplied to the bees. The diets used in the present study will be isoenergetic, developed with different levels of crude protein (19, 21, 23, 25, 27 and 30%). To perform the longevity tests, newly emerged bees will be housed in confinement cages and will receive the artificial diets for six days to stabilize the physiological condition; Then the diets will be contaminated with the LD50 / 100 of the imidacloprid insecticide so that each bee consumes the established daily sublethal dose. The diets will be provided until the loss of all bees in each treatment with record of the daily mortality of the bees. As controls, bees will be used that will receive sugar syrup and beebread. All tests will be performed in triplicate; The longevity data will be evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method using the SPSS program. Differences will be considered significant when p <0.05. (AU)