Overview
Kovalchuk and colleagues fed honey-bee families sugar syrup containing silver citrate or copper citrate and measured Fe, Cu, Zn, Co, chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), and cadmium (Cd) in head, thorax, and abdomen tissues. This is in-scope a4 animal biomonitoring and toxicology context for metal-containing bee feed exposures, not honey or bee-product occurrence.
Key numbers
The study formed five groups of bee families, with three bee families in each group. The control group received sugar syrup at 1:1 concentration, 1000 mL/group/week. Experimental group II received silver citrate at 0.5 mg/L of sugar syrup; group III received silver citrate at 1.0 mg/L; group IV received copper citrate at 0.5 mg/L; and group V received copper citrate at 1.0 mg/L. The monitoring period lasted 28 days.
On day 28, the authors extracted 100 worker bees from each group, dissected head, thorax, and abdominal sections, and formed three parallel 1 g homogenate samples from each section. Fe, Cu, Zn, Co, Cr, Pb, and Cd were reported in mg/kg of natural mass in Figures 1-7.
The extracted text preserves the figure captions and units but not the bar heights from Figures 1-7. Source-printed numeric and statistical statements include:
| Finding | Source-printed value |
|---|---|
| Fe in head tissue, group III vs control | 24.2% higher, p < 0.05 |
| Fe in thorax tissue, groups IV and V vs control | 1.2 and 1.1 times higher, p < 0.05 |
| Zn in head tissue, groups II and III vs control | 15% higher (p < 0.05) and 16% higher (p < 0.01) |
| Zn in head tissue, groups IV and V vs control | 24% lower and 19% lower, both p < 0.01 |
| Zn in thorax tissue, groups IV and V vs control | 7% and 19% lower, p < 0.01 |
| lead (Pb) in head tissue, groups IV and V vs control | 1.7 and 1.6 times lower, p < 0.05 |
| Abdomen lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd), groups IV and V vs control | Pb lower at p < 0.001 and Cd lower at p < 0.05 |
The abstract states that silver citrate at 0.5 and 1.0 mg/L increased Fe in head and abdominal tissues, decreased Fe in thorax, decreased Cu in head, thorax, and abdomen, increased Zn in head and thorax, decreased Zn in abdomen, and reduced Pb and Cd in all anatomic sections. The abstract states that copper citrate at 0.5 and 1.0 mg/L reduced Fe in head tissue, increased Fe in thorax and abdomen, increased Cu, and reduced Zn, Pb, and Cd in all anatomic sections.
The conclusion states that silver citrate at 0.5 and 1.0 mg/L increased Fe and Zn in head tissues and decreased Pb in abdomen tissues, while copper citrate at 0.5 and 1.0 mg/L increased Fe in thorax and abdomen, increased Cu, and decreased Zn, Pb, and Cd in head, thorax, and abdomen tissues. The authors report no significant differences in Co, except an increase in the abdomen of group V, and no significant differences in Cr.
Methods (brief)
Honey bees of the Carpathian breed were kept in eight-frame beehives at the apiary of S. Z. Gzhytskyi Lviv National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies. Silver and copper were added to sugar syrup as citrates obtained by a nanotechnology method. Tissues were dry-ashed in porcelain crucibles at 100 degrees C initially and 400-450 degrees C at the final ashing stage for 10-12 h, dissolved in 10 mL of 6 N HCl, filtered, and analyzed for Fe, Cu, Zn, Co, Cr, Pb, and Cd by atomic-absorption spectrophotometer SF-115PK. Statistics used ANOVA and Statistica 6.0 with significance at p < 0.05.
Related evidence
Update history
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