Thinking inside the box: Restoring the propolis envelope facilitates honey bee social immunity
Fig 9
Pathogen load in control and rough box migratory colonies.
(A) Detection of EFB via gene expression was significantly reduced in rough box colonies (n = 79, F1,77 = 5.66, p = 0.02) compared to control colonies in February 2020. Mean gene expression (log(2−ΔCt) ± standard error. (B) There was a marginal reduction in signs of EFB observed in March of 2020 at the colony level (n = 69, p = 0.10). Mean EFB/brood ± standard error, where EFB score is divided by the number of frames with EFB present, and score is determined according to the following: 0 = no cells, 1 = less than 10 cells, 2 = 11–100 cells, 3 = more than 100 cells. (C) When colonies were sampled for Varroa mites in August of 2019 there were 35% fewer mites in rough box colonies than in control colonies, though this difference was not statistically significant (n = 110, p = 0.18). Asterisks indicate significant differences between treatments (p < 0.05).