Impact of contaminated diet with heavy metals, cadmium and lead on the protein content and longevity of honeybee workers

Abstract

Heavy metal toxicity is an environmental concern in all areas affected by mining, industrial, and agricultural operations. At high concentrations, heavy metals are lethal to honeybees, but little is known about how different concentrations and doses affect honeybees or whether they will consume contaminated food. We studied the effect of feeding honeybees with a contaminated sucrose solution at two concentrations of 1.5 and 5.00 ppm for both cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) on the protein content in the honeybee’s body and their survival time. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the control and the heavy metal contamination under examination; it led to a decrease in the percentage of total protein in the bee’s body and a decrease in its survival time, and there was a significant correlation between them.