American foulbrood (AFB) and European foulbrood (EFB) are the two major bacterial diseases affecting honeybees, leading to a decrease in viability of the hive, decreasing honey production, and resulting in significant economic losses to beekeepers. Due to the inefficiency and/or low efficacy of some antibiotics, researches with nanotechnology represent, possibly, new therapeutic strategies. Nanostructure drugs have presented some advantagesover the conventional medicines, such as slow, gradual and controlled release, increased bioavailability, and reduced side-effects. In this study, different infected larvae were collected from two apiaries; the combs that had symptoms of American and European foulbrood were isolated. In vitro antimicrobial activity of camphor tree silver nano-particles against foulbrood diseases were characterized using UV-Vis spectrophotometry and scanning electron microscope (SEM) that proves the formation of silver nanoparticles with size range 160-660 nm. The antimicrobial activity of the silver nanoparticles was tested using agar diffusion assay and proved their ability to effectively cease the pathogenic bacterial growth in both AFB and EFB. DGGE-PCR technique has been applied for the identification of un-common bacterial infections honeybees depending on 16S rRNA amplification from their total extracted DNA and has been identified as Serratia marcescens (TES), deposited in GenBank with a new accession number (MT240613). The results were confirmed strain has been detected by DGGE-PCR analysis causing uniquely infected brood that was attacked by the American Foulbrood It could be concluded that greenly synthesized silver nanoparticles is projected to be used as effective treatment for honeybee bacterial diseases. These material need more investigations under field conditions and study the possibility of its residues in honeybee products such as honey, and beeswax.
Keywords: American foulbrood; Apis mellifera; DGGE-PCR technique; European foulbrood; Nano-particles.
© 2021 The Author(s).