Investigating the Antimicrobial Properties of Scottish Honey: A Citizen Science Approach

蜂蜜和其他蜜蜂产品在历史上一直被用作医疗用途。经过20世纪70年代进行的研究，以及新西兰政府持续开展的非常成功的营销活动，麦卢卡蜂蜜因其被证明的医疗益处而获得溢价。几乎所有这些好处都归功于麦卢卡蜂蜜强大的抗菌活性，这是根据独特的麦卢卡系数(UMF)来衡量的。围绕着麦卢卡蜂蜜的医疗益处，一个有价值的行业已经成长起来，它是目前唯一用于人类和兽医伤口愈合的蜂蜜。人和动物的伤口通常是疼痛的，愈合可能会延迟，并容易出现并发症，这通常是由于感染。在医疗和兽医实践中，蜂蜜是常规使用的，含有医用级麦卢卡蜂蜜的敷料已被证明对治疗人和动物的复杂伤口有效。由于麦卢卡蜂蜜的高成本和可获得性有限，兽医和医生有兴趣确定用于伤口愈合的其他蜂蜜来源，这些蜂蜜可在发达国家和低收入和中等收入国家(LMIC)使用。使用更便宜的蜂蜜甚至当地生产的蜂蜜有效地治疗LMIC中约1亿匹正在工作的马、驴和骡子的伤口，将极大地改善动物和人类的福利，并产生显著的社会经济效益。英国皇家(迪克)兽医学院的研究人员调查了来自世界各地的一系列蜂蜜的抗菌效果，一个令人惊讶的结果是，蜜蜂在苏格兰石南植物上觅食产生的蜂蜜在抑制常见伤口微生物生长方面与麦卢卡蜂蜜一样有效。许多其他研究开始支持这一观察结果，我们想要调查更广泛的苏格兰蜂蜜，在一个公民科学家团队的支持下进行来源和测试，以确认石南花蜂蜜潜在的抗菌活性。参与该项目的公民科学家将来自苏格兰各地的养蜂协会和拥有蜂房的中学，他们将参加爱丁堡大学复活节布什科学推广中心为期两天的实验室研讨会。我们将使用和比较不同的实验方法来测试来自自己蜂巢的蜂蜜样品和对照样品的抗菌性能，并对蜂蜜样品的水分和花粉含量进行分析。这些实验的结果将创建一组新的数据，爱丁堡大学的科学家和临床医生可以使用这些数据来计划进一步的公民科学和研究项目。公民科学家还将就一个新的教育工具包“蜂蜜给马”提供反馈，该工具包是该项目的一部分，目的是支持中学教师与学生一起调查蜂蜜的抗微生物特性。该工具包将在项目结束时在网上免费提供，供中学使用。

Honey and other honey bee products have been used as medical treatments throughout history. Following research carried out from the 1970s, and an ongoing and highly successful marketing campaign by the New Zealand Government, manuka honey commands a premium price due to its 'proven' medical benefits. Nearly all of these benefits are due to the strong antimicrobial activity of manuka honey, which are measured in terms of unique manuka factor (UMF). A valuable industry has grown up around the medical benefits of manuka honey and it is the only honey currently used in human and veterinary medicine for wound healing. Wounds in humans and animals are often painful and healing may be delayed and be prone to complications, which are often due to infection. In medical and veterinary practice honey is routinely used, and dressings that contain medical-grade manuka honey have proven effectiveness for treating complicated wounds in people and animals. Due to the high cost and limited availability of manuka honey, there is interest from vets and doctors in identifying other sources of honey for use in wound healing, which could be used in both developed and low and middle income countries (LMICs). The ability to effectively treat wounds in the estimated 100 million working horses, donkeys and mules in LMICs using cheaper or even locally produced honey would create a huge improvement in animal and human welfare and significant socioeconomic benefits. Researchers at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies have investigated the antimicrobial effects of a range of honey from across the world, and a surprise result was that honey produced by bees foraging on Scottish heather plants were as effective at inhibiting the growth of common wound microbes as manuka honey. A number of other studies are beginning to support this observation, and we would like to investigate a wider range of Scottish honey, sourced and tested with support from a team of citizen scientists, to confirm the potential antimicrobial activity of heather honey. The citizen scientists involved in the project will come from beekeeping associations and secondary schools with apiaries from across Scotland, and will take part in a two-day, laboratory-based workshop at the Easter Bush Science Outreach Centre at the University of Edinburgh. We will use and compare different experimental methods to test the antimicrobial properties of honey samples from their own hives and control samples, and also analyse the moisture and pollen content of the honey samples. The results of these experiments will create a new set of data that can be used by scientists and clinicians at the University of Edinburgh to plan further citizen science and research projects. The citizen scientists will also provide feedback on a new educational toolkit "Honey for Horses", created as part of the project to support secondary school teachers to develop investigations with their pupils into the antimicrobial properties of honey. This toolkit will be made freely available online at the end of the project for use in secondary schools.