Despite the gloom and doom press which would have us believe that honey bees are vanishing from the earth, there is a very large population of honey bees that are thriving. Current stats indicate that the US may have around 2 million colonies. Meanwhile, there are an estimated 200 million in the Americas and more than 300 million in Africa. These bees are apparently healthy, despite being exposed to similar pathogens: 

> Work in the Americas on honeybees originating mainly from South Africa indicates that Africanized honeybees are less affected by the interplay of pathogens and parasites. However, little is known about the health status of South African honeybees (A. m. scutellata and A. m. capensis) in relation to pathogens and parasites. 

> We therefore compared the seasonal prevalence of honeybee pathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi) and parasites (mites, bee lice, wax moth, small hive beetles, A. m. capensis social parasites) between sedentary and migratory A. m. scutellata apiaries situated in the Gauteng region of South Africa. 

> Even though no bacterial pathogens were detected, Nosema apis and Chalkbrood were confirmed. honeybee parasites were found in the majority of the apiaries with the most common parasite being the Varroa mite. In spite of hosting few pathogens, yet most parasites, A. m. scutellata colonies appeared to be healthy.

> Although our study covered only a small region of the country, our results are consistent with previously reported occurrences of pathogens and parasites. In addition, we report the first detection of IAPV and VDV-1 in South African honeybees as well as in Varroa mites infesting A. m. scutellata colonies. The most frequent cause of colony loss observed in this study was infestation by the capensis social parasite. The spread of this parasite is facilitated by beekeep-

> No colony losses in this study were directly attributed to Varroa mite presence or their associated pathogens. These results are in contrast to other studies around the world where Varroa mites played a significant or central role in colony losses. Also, the close association between Varroa mites and viruses (especially DWV, ABPV) and the subsequent colony losses they usually cause were not observed in this study. Even though some apiaries in this study were occasionally infested with multiple pathogens and parasites, no obvious signs of disease were observed; thereby suggesting that the savannah honeybee population studied is resistant to these assaults.

Strauss, U., Human, H., Gauthier, L., Crewe, R. M., Dietemann, V., & Pirk, C. W. (2013). Seasonal prevalence of pathogens and parasites in the savannah honeybee (Apis mellifera scutellata). Journal of Invertebrate Pathology.

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