Varroa sensitive hygiene

About: Varroa sensitive hygiene is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 714 publications have been published within this topic receiving 24928 citations. The topic is also known as: VSH.

Africanized honey bee colonies in Costa Rica: First evidence of its management, brood nest structure and factors associated with varroa mites infestation

Abstract: Abstract Management, brood nest structure and factors associated with varroa mites infestation were studied in 60 apiaries of Africanized honey bees in the northwest region of the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Apiaries were monitored two times. The first monitoring was taken forward between May and November 2019 (rainy season) and the second one between February and March 2020 (dry season). Information about the beekeepers, apiaries and management was collected through a survey. Amount of open and capped brood, honey and pollen were registered. The infestation rate of varroa was measured using standard laboratory methods. A determination of multi-residue pesticides in bee bread was made through GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS techniques. According to the results, most of the beekeepers produce honey (96.7%), participate in training activities (82.2%), and change the bee queens annually (70.0%). The first monitoring was characterized by a lower amount of capped brood and honey reserves than the second one. Varroa mites infestation was significantly higher in the first monitoring (6.0 ± 0.4) in comparison with the second one (3.0 ± 0.3) ( U Mann-Whitney p < 0.001). The maximum value for the first monitoring exceeds 40.0%, while this value was close to 25.0% in the second monitoring. Mite infestation had direct correlations with the distance of near apiaries and the presence of perforated capping brood, while it had inverse correlations with the nuclei formation and training activities. Furthermore, twenty-three bee bread samples presented one to five pesticide residues, being the most frequent antifungal agrochemicals.

Behavioral Defenses of Iranian Honey Bees (Apis mellifera meda)Against Varroa destructor

Abstract: Applying pesticides against Varroa destructor mite in most part of Iranian apiculture is inevitable. Therefore, we tried to investigate the resistance mechanisms of Iranian honeybees (Apis mellifera meda) against Varroa destructor. In this research, records of 50 colonies of the honeybees collected from five different regions of East Azarbayjan province. Recorded traits of each hive were number of adult bees, number of sealed brood, number of mites in phoretic phase, number of Varroa infestation brood, and number of Varroa mites falling on the hive bottom board (major variable). A multiple regression model studied effect of noise variables on the interested major variable. Then, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to survey variables in different regions of apiculture in terms of number of Varroa fallen down on the bottom board of hives together with four above mentioned variables to examine all variables simultaneously. Results of variance analysis showed significance differences among different regions of apiculture in terms of number of Varroa mites down on the hives bottom board. In addition, results of correlation survey indicated that there is no significance correlation between number of the mites on the hive floor and population of adult bees of colonies and number of the sealed brood. However, there is a positive and significance correlation between number of Varroa fallen down on the bottom board of hives and number of mites in phoretic phase (r = 0.575); and number of Varroa infestation brood (r = 0.625). These results indicate the presence of a high variance of resistance behavior against Varroa destructor; and verify the possibility of breeding and producing bees of Iranian honeybee stocks which are resistant against Varroa.

Detection of the high risk pyrethroid resistant Varroa destructor mites in apiaries of the Warmia-Mazury province in Poland.

Abstract: Background . The aim of our current study was to investigate the possible occurence of pyrethroid (tau−fluvalinate) resistant Varroa mites infestations in 24 randomly chosen apiaries of Warmia−Mazury province of north−east Poland. Methods . The methodology used for the analysis of resistant Varroa strains strictly followed the pro - tocol described by Milani (6, 14). Results . We identified 3 apiaries that were infested with high risk pyrethroid resis - tance mites and a further 9 apiaries that were free from this resitance. The brood samples collected from the remaining apiaries did not contain sufficient numbers of parasites to enable us to properly perform the assay. Conclusions . Our finding that 25% of the tested brood samples showed a high risk of fully pyrethroid resistant Varroa mite contamina - tion indicates that resistant Varroa may become wide spread in apiaries in Poland. Interestingly these high risk resistant mites were found in honeybee colonies with low levels of Varroa infestation, with an average rate of 2.16%. We also discuss the role of amitraz (amidine) in the phenomenon of Varroa resistance to pyrethroids.