【精英翻譯】的部落格

Scientists create bee vaccine to fight off insect apocalypse 科學家創造蜜蜂疫苗，對抗昆蟲末日

精英翻譯社轉自https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1267352

◎孫宇青

Bees are vital for growing the world’s food as they help fertilize three out of four crops, by transferring pollen from male to female flowers. But in recent years, bee populations have been dying off from "colony collapse disorder."

蜜蜂對全球糧食生產至關重要，因為每4種糧食作物中，就有3種須靠蜜蜂在雄花和雌花間授粉。但近年來，有大量蜜蜂死於「蜂群崩壞症候群」。

A team at Helsinki University in Finland has developed a vaccine, which they believe is the world’s first, to give bees resistance to fight off severe microbial diseases that can be fatal for pollinator communities.

芬蘭赫爾辛基大學一個團隊相信，他們已研發出全球第一支可幫助蜜蜂抵抗由微生物引起，對授粉生物來說具致命性嚴重疾病的疫苗。

Vaccinating insects was previously thought to be impossible because the creatures lack antibodies until Dalial Freitak, a specialist in insects and immunology, noticed in 2014 that moths who are fed certain bacteria can in fact pass on immunity to their offspring.

為蜜蜂接種疫苗過去被認為不可能，因為這種生物體內缺乏抗體。但昆蟲及免疫學專家達利歐．弗萊塔克在2014年注意到，吃下特定細菌的蛾，竟能把自己產生的免疫力遺傳給後代。

Heli Salmela was working on honey bees and a protein called vitellogenin at Helsinki U. and the pair started to collaborate to create a vaccine against American foulbrood. The treatment is administered to the queen bee via a sugar lump. The queen then passes the immunity to her offspring, spreading it through the bee community.

赫爾辛基大學的海莉．薩梅拉當時正在研究蜜蜂和一種名為卵黃生成素的蛋白質，之後她和弗萊塔克開始合作，研發出可對抗美洲幼蟲病的疫苗。他們的治療方法是，利用一塊糖將疫苗餵給女王蜂，由女王蜂將免疫力傳給後代，並擴散至整個蜜蜂群體。