Issue Apidologie Volume 40, Number 6, November-December 2009 Page(s) 595 - 599 DOI 10.1051/apido/2009039 Published online 17 June 2009

Apidologie 40 (2009) 595-599
DOI: 10.1051/apido/2009039

Behavioral changes mediated by hunger in honeybees infected with Nosema ceranae

Dhruba Naug and Ann Gibbs

Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA

Received 16 October 2008 – Revised 10 February 2009 – Accepted 28 February 2009 - Published online 17 June 2009

Abstract - The microsporidian Nosema is a common honeybee pathogen which enters the adult bee orally and multiplies in its gut, imposing a metabolic demand on its host. The newly discovered Nosema ceranae, given its relatively new association with the European honeybee, is likely to be particularly severe in this regard. We therefore hypothesized that N. ceranae exerts a significant effect on the feeding behavior of infected bees. Results from our experiments support this idea, revealing that infected bees are more responsive to sucrose and are less inclined to share this food with other bees, suggesting that they have a higher hunger level. We argue that increased hunger in the host is a general physiological effect of a number of pathogenic infections and due to its effect on host behavior could act as a mechanism by which the host and the pathogen can influence the transmission rates of an infection. Behavioral mechanisms, mediated by physiology could therefore be in the frontline of any arms race between a host and its pathogen.

Key words: host-pathogen interaction / behavioral alteration / hunger / appetite / Nosema ceranae / Apis mellifera


© INRA, DIB-AGIB, EDP Sciences 2009

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