Diathesis Stress and Honeybee Hive Failure

Abstract

Commonly used to understand psychopathology in humans, the diathesis-stress model is modified and applied to the epidemic of honeybee hive loss. Pests including the varroa mite, disease, pesticide exposure in and outside the hive, habitat, lack of food diversity, neural plasticity, drone sperm viability, hive factors including distance from other hives and climate change, interact with genetic vulnerability, resulting in hive loss. The model points to the need to evaluate the contributing strength of each factor to trigger genetic vulnerability. It is also argued that a model utilizing AI technology may be a vital new tool for analyzing the strength and contribution of each variable. The Diathesis-Stress Model has effectively assisted researchers and clinicians in better understanding the etiology of various mental health conditions [1]. The model implies that genetic vulnerability may activate a psychological disorder when influenced by multiple environmental factors. Severe illnesses such as Schizophrenia and chronic depression have been successfully understood utilizing this model [2-3] (11).

Full text

Diathesis Stress and Honeybee Hive Failure
Henry J. Svec, Ph.D.
Abstract
Commonly used to understand psychopathology in humans, the diathesis-stress model is modified and
applied to the epidemic of honeybee hive loss. Pests including the varroa mite, disease, pesticide
exposure in and outside the hive, habitat, lack of food diversity, neural plasticity, drone sperm viability,
hive factors including distance from other hives and climate change, interact with genetic vulnerability,
resulting in hive loss. The model points to the need to evaluate the contributing strength of each factor
to trigger genetic vulnerability. It is also argued that a model utilizing AI technology may be a vital new
tool for analyzing the strength and contribution of each variable.
The Diathesis-Stress Model has effectively assisted researchers and clinicians in better understanding
the etiology of various mental health conditions [1]. The model implies that genetic vulnerability may
activate a psychological disorder when influenced by multiple environmental factors. Severe illnesses
such as Schizophrenia and chronic depression have been successfully understood utilizing this model [2-
3] (11).
Several environmental factors may also combine to increase strength to achieve a threshold to activate
this genetic vulnerability. One factor alone may or may not have the power to trigger this. (13) For
example, a person may suffer the loss of a significant other but continue living productively until they
experience a minor incident while riding the subway. The final incident on the subway, when combined
with the significant loss years earlier, may trigger a genetic predisposition by responding to anxiety and
depression. While the initial loss may account for 98% of the trigger threshold, the criteria to trigger the
genetic predisposition were not established until the remaining 2% was experienced on the subway.
Clinicians have reported that specific environmental experiences (12) may alter the triggering threshold
of stress to the premorbid condition. Certain cognitive styles, for example, are reflected in a reduction
in depression symptomology. By studying the various combinations of effective stress coping
mechanisms, clinicians can help clients better withstand stresses that otherwise would trigger their
premorbid vulnerability.
The current belief about the diathesis-stress model to explain mental health conditions focuses on an
identification of the stressful occurrences that could trigger the premorbid vulnerability and reduce
those with positive stress coping mechanisms. Evidence also supports epigenetic modifications or genes
by environmental interactions that lead to illness and disease. (14) This model has also been effectively
utilized to understand physical disorders such as auto-immune disease. (33)
In summary, from a mental and physical health perspective in humans, the diathesis-stress model
implies the interaction of diathesis and environmental stress. It is now believed to be a bidirectional and
threshold-based process.

Honeybee hive loss has been declared a worldwide crisis. The invasion of varroa mites has been
implicated as the primary cause (16). The focus on eliminating mites utilizing several pesticides has
failed over time, with treatment residue impacting honeybee health (3).
In cases where honeybees can survive varroa infestations without treatment, specific learned
behaviours such as enhanced hygiene and infested brood removal are thought to be due to an alteration
of the diathesis through neuroplasticity. This is believed to be passed on to future generations of bees
that maintain these adaptive disease prevention skills. (1, 5)
These environmental stressors are proposed to induce behavioural change in the honeybee, which is
then transferred as reduced diathesis through epigenetic modification (9). We suggest that by
identifying the different environmental stresses that may positively or negatively impact diathesis for
the honeybee, a more effective and comprehensive understanding of honeybee hive decline may be
realized.
Research has demonstrated that the quality of food available to honeybees assists in their ability to
cope with various disease states brought on by varroa mite infestations (6). Diseases such as the black
queen cell and deformed wing viruses are less prominent when food diversity is available.
Hive factors, including the construction of hives and even their distance apart, have been implicated in
hive failure. Hives within 100 feet of each other are believed to be more prone to drifting and robbing
behaviour, leading to disease transmission (8).
Various diseases not propagated by the varroa mite have also been implicated in environmental stress
and diathesis triggering (7). Pests, including ants and wasps, have been noted to increase hive stress,
sometimes lead to hive failure (4).
The use of miticides and pesticides within the hive has been linked to drone sperm viability issues. It is
believed that should pesticides be used within the hive while drones are developing in the brood, those
drones are significantly more likely to have inferior or damaged sperm. Should they then mate with
queens, those queens would fail due to their inability to consistently lay fertilized eggs (10). Pesticides
external to the hive have been implicated in toxicity levels that can lead to hive failure (3).
The habitat of the immediate and surrounding area has also been implicated in this research.
Honeybees require diverse plants, trees, fungi, and fresh, clean water to maintain health. These factors
are known to support hive health (6). Climate change stresses the beehive, requiring an adaptation to
different temperatures and humidity levels. While honeybees have adapted to changing climates
historically, the speed of current change may impact their ability to do so. Other environmental and
habitat changes due to climate change may also affect hive survival (15).
In summary, while researchers and practitioners have implicated various genetic and environmental
stress factors associated with hive loss, these factors have not been conceptualized to allow for
interactive contributions. An acceptance of the Diathesis-Stress Model for hive loss requires a more
comprehensive investigation of the noted variables, induced stresses and the subsequent triggering
of the genetic predisposition for failure or, in contrast, survival.

The Diathesis stress Model for Hive Health (Figure 1) provides the noted variables and
demonstrates their interaction effects. This model recognizes each variable's interactive and
contributing effects, their contribution to neuroplasticity and their impact on genetic vulnerability.
Considering the diathesis of each local strain of bees, combined with the variables that have been
identified in the micro-climate of each Apiary location, will assist beekeepers and researchers in
better understanding the cause of hive failure.
In our applied research in converting a 50-acre farm back to nature as a honeybee sanctuary, we
are evaluating these variables utilizing hive sensors, AI analysis of hive entrance video data, and
drone AI descriptions of the micro-climate on our farm. Other data points, such as internal hive
temperature and humidity monitoring, ecosystem analysis of vegetation, and pesticide monitoring
external to the hive, are also now possible.
What is proposed is creating a micro-analysis of Diathesis Stress within habitats where honeybees
are managed. Such a tool could better help researchers, scientists, and beekeepers understand the
various factors that must be contained within their specific environments to facilitate hive survival.
This model points to the need to understand that a single event, unless catastrophic or acute (bear
destroying a hive in the winter or severe mite infestation), is likely not responsible in isolation for
hive loss. Instead, the stress contributions made by the variables within that micro-climate and
location trigger the Diathesis for Hive loss.
Figure 1

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