Researchers from the Netherlands have successfully trained bees to recognize mink infected with the coronavirus, after they were able to quickly adapt bees to respond specifically to the scent of infected mink, highlighting the potential for bees to be made part of the broader coronavirus diagnosis system.
In a recent study published on the preprint site, bioRxiv * Posted on the site medicalThe diagnostic evaluation trial showed that tests using bees proved to be 92% sensitive.
Training bees to diagnose corona
The researchers tested two different training protocols to assess bee performance in terms of learning rate, memory retention, and accuracy, and developed a rapid, non-invasive test in which multiple bees are tested in parallel on the same samples to obtain reliable results.
With the help of data obtained from the training trials, they simulated a diagnostic evaluation experiment to calculate the potential effectiveness of the diagnostic test, and the diagnostic sensitivity of the test was 92%.
According to the authors, a honeybee-based MERS-CoV diagnostic test may be particularly useful in remote and developing communities that lack the infrastructure and resources for mainstream testing methods.
According to the results of the study, bees have limited sensitivity and specificity in diagnosis, as tests showed that after 24 hours of conditioning, 67% of the bees correctly identified the affected sample (allergen), and then, parallel use of several bees in the same sample may improve Effectively diagnostic performance.
The results of this study suggest that honeybees could be useful in diagnosing coronavirus and possibly other infectious diseases.