The costs and benefits of sunflower pollen diet on bumble bee colony disease and health

Pathogen transmission between domesticated and wild host species has important implications for community ecology, agriculture, and wildlife conservation. Bumble bees provide valuable pollination services that are vital for both wildflowers and agricultural production. Intense concerns about pathogen spillover from commercial bumble bees to wild bee populations, and the potential harmful effects of pathogen spillback to commercial bees, has stimulated a need for practical strategies that effectively manage bumble bee infectious diseases. Here, we assessed the costs and benefits of a medicinal sunflower pollen diet (Helianthus annuus) on whole-colony bumble bee disease and performance using commercial colonies of the common eastern bumble bee, Bombus impatiens, and its protozoan pathogen, Crithidia bombi (Trypanosomatida). We first found that a 1:1 mixture of sunflower combined with wildflower pollen reduced C. bombi infection prevalence and intensity within individual B. impatiens workers by nearly 4-fold and 12-fold, respectively, relative to wildflower pollen. At the colony level, a 1:1 mixture of sunflower and wildflower pollen reduced C. bombi infection prevalence by 11% averaged over a 10-week period and infection intensity by 30% relative to wildflower pollen. Colony performance was similar between pollen diets and infection treatments, including the number of workers and immatures produced, and size and weight of workers, drones, and queens. Infection significantly reduced the probability of queen production in colonies fed a pure wildflower pollen diet, but not colonies fed a mixed sunflower pollen diet, suggesting that the medicinal benefits of a mixed sunflower pollen diet can reverse the negative effects of infection on reproductive success. This study provides evidence that sunflower pollen as part of a mixed pollen diet can reduce infection in individual bees and whole colonies with no significant nutritional trade-offs for colony worker production and most aspects of colony reproduction. A supplemental mixed sunflower pollen diet may provide a simple and effective solution to reduce disease and improve the health of economically and ecologically important pollinators.

Automated summary

A mixed diet of sunflower and wildflower pollen significantly reduced the prevalence and intensity of pathogen infection in individual and whole colonies of bumble bees, without causing nutritional trade-offs for colony production and reproduction. This study suggests that a supplemental mixed sunflower pollen diet can be a simple and effective solution to reduce disease and improve the health of economically and ecologically important pollinators.