Özet:

Nosemosis is a serious parasitic disease of adult honey bees (Apis mellifera) caused by Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. The disease may lead critical changes in midgut mucosa that cause digestive and metabolic disorders. In this study we aimed to describe the histochemical characteristics as well as the changes of peritrophic membrane and mucosa of the healthy and infected honey bees midgut. Tissue samples were taken from healthy and infected workers from the colonies in Kalecik/Ankara. The samples were ¬fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin solution, embedded in paraf¬n and cut with a microtome to 5 μm thick sections. Slides were stained with the Mallory's trichrome stain for revealing general morphological changes and for describing neutral mucosubstances, acid and sulphate mucosubstances and metachromasia we used the Periodic Acid-Schiff Reaction (PAS), Alcian blue (AB) and Toluidine blue (TB). Analysis of the midgut epithelium showed that some cells were with invisible nuclei, the cytoplasm of these cells was densely granulated with vacuoles of various sizes, while cell boundaries were not clearly marked and most cell membranes had been degraded. Histochemical analysis revealed a decrease in the production of mucosubstances with carboxylic groups and rich in sialic acid. Our results were not sufficient to explain which mechanisms are involved on that reduction of secretion. However, it is thought that nosemosis has a nutrient blocking effect and death of infected epithelial cells may have negative effects on mucosubtance production.

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