Pesticide exposure, infectious disease, and nutritional stress contribute to honey bee mortality and a high rate of colony loss. This realization has fueled a decades-long investigation into the single and combined effects of each stressor and their overall bearing on insect physiology. However, one element largely missing from this research effort has been the evaluation of underlying microbial communities in resisting environmental stressors and their influence on host immunity and disease tolerance. In humans, multigenerational bombardment by antibiotics is linked with many contemporary diseases. Here, we draw a parallel conclusion for the case in honey bees and suggest that chronic exposure to antimicrobial xenobiotics can systematically deplete honey bees of their microbes and hamper cross-generational preservation of host-adapted symbionts that are crucial to health.

农药暴露、传染病和营养压力导致蜜蜂死亡率和蜂群损失率高。这一认识推动了长达数十年的对每个压力源的单一和综合影响及其对昆虫生理学的整体影响的研究。然而，这项研究工作中很大程度上缺失的一个要素是对潜在微生物群落抵抗环境压力的评估及其对宿主免疫和疾病耐受性的影响。在人类中，抗生素的多代轰炸与许多当代疾病有关。这里，