In the near future, we may be able to diagnose honey bees diseases simply by analyzing honey. An Italian study, conducted by researchers from CREA and published in PLoS One, has shown that it is possible to detect the presence of at least eight pathogens by searching for their DNA or RNA in honey.

Molecular analyses carried out on 679 honey samples, coming from all twenty Italian regions, detected the presence of DWV, CBPV, ABPV, BQCV, KBV, Nosema ceranae, Crithidia mellificae, and Lotmaria passim in 97.5% of cases.This would be a very interesting investigative method, because it is non-invasive, cruently-free, and can be carried out using a small sample of honey. As the Italian researchers assure, this method does not in any way compromise the quality of the honey, either for the bees or for human consumption.

Further studies will be needed to understand how the presence of pathogen DNA or RNA can be linked to an ongoing disease or used to estimate the pathogen load in the hive. However, the results obtained so far are encouraging.

Read the scientific paper full text here.