Abstract: In order to explore the mechanism of honeybee’s Zaohua disease caused by date nectar and pollen, worker honeybees of Apis mellifera ligustica suffered the disease were collected from Linyi, Taigu and Linxian, and the activities of amylase, protease, invertase, pectinase, trehalase, esterase (EST), glutathione-S-transferase (GST), cytochrome P450 (P450), acetylcholinesterase (AchE) were determined by spectrophotometry. The results showed that compared with the control (enzyme activity of the normal worker honeybee), the amylase activities of worker honeybees from Linyi, Taigu and Linxian were decreased by 73.17%, 60.74% and 70.50%, respectively; protease activities were decreased by 74.45%, 50.68% and 90.44%, respectively; and pectinase activities were decreased by 39.50%, 27.99% and 73.13%, respectively. However, sucrase and trehalase activities had no significant difference from those of the control （P＞0.05）. GST activities of worker honeybees from Linyi, Taigu and Linxian were enhanced by 1.29-, 1.47- and 1.30-fold, and P450 activities were enhanced by 3.31-, 1.66- and 2.12-fold, respectively. But EST and AchE activities had no significant difference from those of the control (P＞0.05). The activities of digestive and detoxification enzymes of worker honeybees, including amylase, protease and pectinase, are changed after their feeding on date nectar and pollen during date florescence, which may be related to the occurrence of Zaohua disease.

Key words: Apis mellifera ligustica, Zaohua disease, digestive enzymes, detoxification enzymes, enzyme activity