December 17, 2018.
Will a vaccine save the bees? This is the ambition of a team of Finnish researchers who have just developed a treatment to stop the vertiginous drop in the bee population in the world.
A vaccine against Bee Colony Collapse Syndrome
Some experts have sounded the alarm for years now, but it seems that the world has only recently become aware of it. The bees are in danger. Threatened by intensive agriculture and pesticides, they are disappearing at an unprecedented speed. However, they are essential to the survival of humanity since it is through their work of pollination that 90% of our cultures develop. But thanks to a recent Finnish discovery, bees may well have found a chance at survival.
These researchers from the University of Helsinki are interested in Bee Colony Collapse Syndrome, this uncontrollable evil which decimates bees by the millions without having really defined the cause. Thanks to what they call a vaccine, entire bee colonies could be saved.
Treatment available on the market in five years
Of course, this “vaccine” would not work as we know it. Corn it would be a question of administering a treatment, via a piece of sugar, to the queen of a colony, which could then transmit it to its offspring thanks to a protein that diffuses a signal from one generation to the next.
It now remains to market this vaccine so that it proves itself as quickly as possible. Researchers are optimistic, but many administrative barriers must first be crossed. It could take about five years to market, according to scientists’ estimates.
Gaelle Latour
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