The western honey bee is highly valued for its important role as natural pollinator. In Morocco, pollination services of Apis mellifera along with other insect pollinators were estimated at 1.2 billion US$. Regrettably, biological stressors including pathogens are leading factors contributing to colony losses and hampering pollination services. The aim of this study was to…
The tiny population of the endemic Maltese honey bee (A. m. ruttneri) is threatened by anthropogenic influences, such as urbanisation, habitat loss, and unsustainable agricultural practices, but most prominently by the importation of commercially important non-native stock. To obtain data on the colony life cycle parameters of A. m. ruttneri and to measure its apicultural performance in…
Honeybees are the most critical pollinators providing key ecosystem services that underpin crop production and sustainable agriculture. Amidst a backdrop of rapid global change, this eusocial insect encounters a succession of stressors during nesting, foraging, and pollination. Ectoparasitic mites, together with vectored viruses, have been recognized as central biotic threats to honeybee health, while the…
Honey bees, Apis mellifera, have for millennia been managed and exploited by humans and introduced into most suitable regions worldwide. However, given the lack of records for many introduction events, treating A. mellifera populations as native would predictably bias genetic studies regarding origin and evolution. Here, we used the Dongbei bee, a well-documented population, introduced…
Background: Over the last two decades, honey bees (Apis mellifera) have suffered high rates of colony losses that have been attributed to a variety of factors, chief among which are viral pathogens, such as deformed wing virus (DWV), whose virulence has increased because of vector-based transmission by the invasive, ectoparasitic varroa mite (Varroa destructor). A…
Abstract – This study assessed the conservation status of the Saharan honey bee (Apis mellifera sahariensis) from southeastern Morocco using 12 microsatellite loci to examine genetic diversity and hybridization with other subspecies. Samples from 148 colonies were clustered into seven populations representing the expected distribution of A. m. intermissa and A. m. sahariensis, and reference…
Here is a new website put together by Stephen Martin of Salford University, UK, with the help of various beekeepers providing resources for those exploring the possibility of using varroa tolerant bees: https://www.varroaresistant.uk/
The goal of this study was to assess the impact of binary combination antioxidant synergistic effects of honeybee products (citrus honey, clover honey, sugar feeding honey, bee pollen, bee bread, bee wax, old wax comb, Egyptian propolis, Chinese propolis, royal jelly, Drone brood homogenate, worker brood homogenate, queen brood homogenate, bee venom) and The present…
The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is a major threat to the health and productivity of Apis mellifera hives and induces its effect by feeding on the fat body of larvae/pupae and transmitting viruses. The effect of the anti-Varroa formic acid containing – Mite Away Quick (MAQ) strips on the proteome of A. mellifera was assessed.…
Members of COLOSS have recently been reporting that the Tropilaelaps mite, which has previously been confined to eastern parts of Asia, has been spreading on Apis mellifera towards the west, and has been detected in Uzbekistan, south -western parts of Russia and possibly Iran. In view of this threat, we feel that there is an…