colony losses – COLOSS

4-Year Overview of Winter Colony Losses in Greece: Citizen Science Evidence That Transitioning to Organic Beekeeping Practices Reduces Colony Losses

ArticlesBy EvangeliaKagiali 20. February 2023

The honey bee is one of the most important pollinators with a close relationship to humans. The questionnaire from the non-governmental association “COLOSS”, answered by beekeepers around the world, is a valuable tool for monitoring and analyzing factors involved in overwintering losses, as well as for understanding the evolution of the beekeeping sector over the…

Acaricide flumethrin-induced sublethal risks in honeybees are associated with gut symbiotic bacterium Gilliamella apicola through microbe-host metabolic interactions

ArticlesBy YahyaAlNaggar 15. August 2022

Flumethrin is one of the few acaricides that permit the control of Varroa disease or varroosis in bee colonies. However, flumethrin accumulates in hive products. We previously discovered that sublethal doses of flumethrin induce significant physiological stress in honeybees (Apis mellifera L.), however its potential impacts on the honeybee gut microenvironment remains unknown. To fill…

Flupyradifurone, sulfoxaflor and azoxystrobin disrupt the gut microbiota of honey bees and increase bacterial pathogens

ArticlesBy YahyaAlNaggar 9. August 2022

The gut microbiome plays an important role in bee health and disease. But it can be disrupted by pesticides and in-hive chemicals, putting honey bee health in danger. We used a controlled and fully crossed laboratory experimental design to test the effects of a 10-day period of chronic exposure to field-realistic sublethal concentrations of two…

Spatial clusters of Varroa destructor control strategies in Europe

ArticlesBy RobertBrodschneider 1. July 2022

Abstract Beekeepers have various options to control the parasitic mite Varroa destructor in honey bee colonies, but no empirical data are available on the methods they apply in practice. We surveyed 28,409 beekeepers maintaining 507,641 colonies in 30 European countries concerning Varroa control methods. The set of 19 different Varroa diagnosis and control measures was…

9th EurBee Congress 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia

NewsBy LjubisaStanisavljevic 20. June 2022

On behalf of the European Association for Bee Research (EurBee) I have the great honour and pleasure to invite you to attend the 9th Congress of Apidology (EurBee 9) convened under the motto: “Save the bees for our future”. The conference intends to promote knowledge exchange and international cooperation and to enable the further exchange…

Bee Stressors from an Immunological Perspective and Strategies to Improve Bee Health

ArticlesBy YahyaAlNaggar 22. April 2022

Honeybees are the most prevalent insect pollinator species; they pollinate a wide range of crops. Colony collapse disorder (CCD), which is caused by a variety of biotic and abiotic factors, incurs high economic/ecological loss. Despite extensive research to identify and study the various ecological stressors such as microbial infections, exposure to pesticides, loss of habitat,…

Direct Economic Impact Assessment of Winter Honeybee Colony Losses in Three European Countries

ArticlesBy RobertBrodschneider 27. April 2021

Abstract Honeybees are of great importance because of their role in pollination as well as for hive products. The population of managed colonies fluctuates over time, and recent monitoring reports show different levels of colony losses in many regions and countries. The cause of this kind of loss is a combination of various factors, such…