Dataset Information

High-resolution maps of Swiss apiaries and their applicability to study spatial distribution of bacterial honey bee brood diseases.

ABSTRACT: Honey bees directly affect and are influenced by their local environment, in terms of food sources, pollinator densities, pathogen and toxin exposure and climate. Currently, there is a lack of studies analyzing these data with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to investigate spatial relationships with the environment. Particularly for inter-colonial pathogen transmission, it is known that the likelihood of a healthy colony to become infested (e.g., Varroosis) or infected (e.g., American foulbrood-AFB, European foulbrood-EFB) increases with higher colony density. Whether these transmission paths can actually be asserted at apiary level is largely unknown. Here, we unraveled spatial distribution and high-resolution density of apiaries and bacterial honey bee brood diseases in Switzerland based on available GIS data. Switzerland as 'model country' offers the unique opportunity to get apiary data since 2010 owing to compulsory registration for every beekeeper. Further, both destructive bee brood diseases (AFB and EFB) are legally notifiable in Switzerland, and EFB has an epizootic character for the last decades. As governmental data sets have to be ameliorated, raw data from the cantonal agricultural or veterinary offices have been included. We found a mean density of 0.56 apiaries per km2, and high resolution spatial analyzes showed strong correlation between density of apiaries and human population density as well as agricultural landscape type. Concerning two bacterial bee brood diseases (AFB, EFB), no significant correlation was detectable with density of apiaries on cantonal level, though a high correlation of EFB cases and apiary density became obvious on higher resolution (district level). Hence, Swiss EFB epizootics seem to have benefited from high apiary densities, promoting the transmission of pathogens by adult bees. The GIS-based method presented here, might also be useful for other bee diseases, anthropogenic or environmental factors affecting bee colonies.

SUBMITTER: von Buren RS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6360077 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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High-resolution maps of Swiss apiaries and their applicability to study spatial distribution of bacterial honey bee brood diseases.

von Büren Raphael S RS Oehen Bernadette B Kuhn Nikolaus J NJ Erler Silvio S

PeerJ 20190131

Honey bees directly affect and are influenced by their local environment, in terms of food sources, pollinator densities, pathogen and toxin exposure and climate. Currently, there is a lack of studies analyzing these data with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to investigate spatial relationships with the environment. Particularly for inter-colonial pathogen transmission, it is known that the likelihood of a healthy colony to become infested (e.g., Varroosis) or infected (e.g., American foulb ...[more]

PMID: 30723636

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Project description:BackgroundRecent declines in honey bees for crop pollination threaten fruit, nut, vegetable and seed production in the United States. A broad survey of pesticide residues was conducted on samples from migratory and other beekeepers across 23 states, one Canadian province and several agricultural cropping systems during the 2007-08 growing seasons.Methodology/principal findingsWe have used LC/MS-MS and GC/MS to analyze bees and hive matrices for pesticide residues utilizing a modified QuEChERS method. We have found 121 different pesticides and metabolites within 887 wax, pollen, bee and associated hive samples. Almost 60% of the 259 wax and 350 pollen samples contained at least one systemic pesticide, and over 47% had both in-hive acaricides fluvalinate and coumaphos, and chlorothalonil, a widely-used fungicide. In bee pollen were found chlorothalonil at levels up to 99 ppm and the insecticides aldicarb, carbaryl, chlorpyrifos and imidacloprid, fungicides boscalid, captan and myclobutanil, and herbicide pendimethalin at 1 ppm levels. Almost all comb and foundation wax samples (98%) were contaminated with up to 204 and 94 ppm, respectively, of fluvalinate and coumaphos, and lower amounts of amitraz degradates and chlorothalonil, with an average of 6 pesticide detections per sample and a high of 39. There were fewer pesticides found in adults and brood except for those linked with bee kills by permethrin (20 ppm) and fipronil (3.1 ppm).Conclusions/significanceThe 98 pesticides and metabolites detected in mixtures up to 214 ppm in bee pollen alone represents a remarkably high level for toxicants in the brood and adult food of this primary pollinator. This represents over half of the maximum individual pesticide incidences ever reported for apiaries. While exposure to many of these neurotoxicants elicits acute and sublethal reductions in honey bee fitness, the effects of these materials in combinations and their direct association with CCD or declining bee health remains to be determined.

Project description:Honey bees play important roles in pollination for many crops and wild plants, but have been facing great threats posed by various pathogens and parasites. Among them, Varroa destructor, an obligate ectoparasite of honey bees, is considered the most damaging. Within the last century, V. destructor shifted from the original host, the Asian honey bee Apis cerana to the new host, the European honey bee A. mellifera. However, the reproduction of Varroa mites, especially of different haplotypes in the two hosts, is still largely unknown. In this study, we first investigated the existing Varroa haplotypes in local colonies in southern China, and then compared the reproduction of different haplotypes on the worker brood of both the original and new hosts by artificial inoculation. We confirmed that there are two haplotypes of V. destructor in southern China, one is the Korea haplotype and the other is the China haplotype, and the two types parasitized different honey bee species. Although Varroa females from A. mellifera (Korea haplotype) are able to reproduce on the worker brood of both honey bee species, they showed better reproductive performance in the new host A. mellifera with significantly higher fecundity (number of offspring per mother mite) and reproductive rate (number of adult daughters per mother mite), suggesting that this parasite gains higher fitness after host shift. The data further showed that a short stay of Varroa females inside the A. cerana worker cells decreased their fecundity and especially the reproductive rate in a time-dependent manner, suggesting that the A. cerana worker cells may inhibit Varroa reproduction. In contrast, Varroa mites derived from A. cerana colonies (China haplotype) were entirely sterile in A. mellifera worker cells during two sequential inoculations, while the control mites from A. mellifera colonies (Korea haplotype) reproduced normally. In addition, all the infertile mites were found to defecate on the abdomen of bee pupae. We have revealed that two haplotypes of V. destructor exhibit differential reproduction on the worker brood of the original and new host honey bees, providing novel insights into the diversity and complexity of the reproduction of V. destructor.

Project description:Nosemosis is the most common disease in honey bee Apis mellifera L., and is a major issue related to bee health worldwide. Therefore, the purpose of this research study was to determine prevalence of microsporidia parasitic infection of the genus Nosema spp. in East Kazakhstan Region (EKR). In the years of 2018 -2021, 394 honey bee samples were collected at 30 apiaries located in four districts of East Kazakhstan Region (Katon-Karagay, Urzhar, Borodulikhinsky, and Shemonaikhinsky). In order to determine the level of infestation, firstly, the presence of Nosema spp. spores was detected using optical microscopy, and then the average amount of spores per bee was counted using a hemocytometer. The degree of nosemosis prevalence was determined in points by means of a semi-quantitative method, and as a percentage from the total of samples and of the amount of positive tests. At the outcome of the study, microsporidia of the genus Nosema spp. were detected in 23.3% of cases (92 samples). Prevalence at its low degree was found in six samples (1.5%), at an average degree in 55 samples (14%), and at a high one in 31 samples (7.9%). This research study proved that microsporidia of the genus Nosema spp. are widely spread at the apiaries of East Kazakhstan Region in different orographic and climatic conditions. Notwithstanding that it was impossible to statistically determine any significant differences between the dependence of nosemosis prevalence and the apiary location, this indicator is actually higher in the mountainous regions than in the steppe. Concurrently, a close inverse correlation was recognized between the amount of spores in one bee and the level of infestation in bee families from the duration of the vegetation season at the apiary location. This gives grounds to assert that the environmental factors have an impact on formation and development of nosemosis. The results of the research presented in the article indicate the need for further research aimed at increasing the number of studied apiaries, and above all the use of molecular biology methods to distinguish the species that cause nosemosis infection (PCR).

Dataset Information

High-resolution maps of Swiss apiaries and their applicability to study spatial distribution of bacterial honey bee brood diseases.

Publications

High-resolution maps of Swiss apiaries and their applicability to study spatial distribution of bacterial honey bee brood diseases.

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