Honeybee 'superfood' could help defend insects against devastating decline
Scientists at the University of Oxford have created what's been described as the first 'superfood' for honeybees.
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The solution, described as a potentially life-saving food for the insects, comes amid declining number of honeybees across the UK.
The team of scientists successfully used gene editing to create a more nutritious yeast food source for bees, capable of creating the six sterols the bees need.
Pollen from flowers, which contains specific lipids called sterols, forms the major component of a honeybee diet.
Due to the complex nature of developing them, these have long been missing from supplementary food provided by beekeepers - which mainly consists of water, flour and sugar.
Bumblebee numbers dropped to the lowest on record in 2024, with nutrient deficiency - alongside climate change and use of insect-harming pesticides - reported as having a serious impact on the insects.
Led by Professor Geraldine Wright at the University of Oxford, the “superfood” was fed to bees in the lab’s hives for three months. The colonies receiving the food saw up to 15 times more baby bees surviving to adulthood, compared to those without.
The discovery comes as a result of 15 years of research by the team.
“When the bees have a complete nutrition they should be healthier and less susceptible to disease," said Professor Wright.
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"It's really important in years when the summer came early and bees will not have sufficient pollen and nectar to make it through the winter.”
Honeybees remain a vital part of food production, with over 70 types of UK crops benefitting from bee pollination. In spring and summer months, bees feed on pollen and nectar from flowers to survive. However in the winter, bees rely on the honey in hives as their food source - when this honey is removed to sell, supplementary food is required to sustain them.
There are hopes that this “superfood” alternative will be available to beekeepers and farmers within the next two years.
The study was led by the University of Oxford, working alongside the University of Greenwich, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and the Technical University of Denmark.
Larger-scale trials are now expected to assess the long-term impacts of the food.