Honey bee larvae are highly susceptible to the bacterial pathogen Paenibacillus larvae only during the first instar of larval development. Transcript levels were measured for genes encoding two antimicrobial peptides, abaecin and defensin, as well as for two candidates in the immune response cascade (PGRP-LD and masquerade) in control larvae and larvae exposed to the pathogen. Transcripts for a...

Honey-bee colony losses are an increasing problem in Western countries. There are many different causes, including infections due to various pathogens. Molecular biology techniques have been developed to reliably detect and identify honey-bee pathogens. The most sensitive, specific and reliable is the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) methodology. This review of the litera...

Recently, increasing incidences of AFB and problems controlling the disease – based on resistance build-up in the bacteria, increased residue problems, and loss of natural resistance in bees have renewed the interest for AFB tolerant honey bee strains world-wide. The honey bee possesses different tolerance mechanisms against AFB – e.g. larval resistance, hygienic behaviour and food inhibition o...

The Data Availability statement for this paper is incorrect. The correct statement is: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files, except the aminoacidic sequence of the endolysin, which is available in RefSeq, accession number YP_008320357.1. Copyright: © 2015 Oliveira et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Att...

American foulbrood (AFB) is one of the severe infectious diseases of European honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) and other Apis species. This disease is caused by a gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. In this paper, a compartmental (SI framework) model is constructed to represent the spread of AFB within a colony. The model is analyzed to determine the long-term fate of the ...

In many circumstances, concepts, ideas and emotions are mainly conveyed by colors. Color vision disorders can heavily limit the user experience in accessing Information Society. Therefore, color vision impairments should be taken into account in order to make information and services accessible to a broader audience. The task is not easy for designers that generally are not affected by any colo...