Do I understand correctly that, although varroa is also well established in Chinese bee hives, the number of hives has been growing strongly the past decades?



 



Marc

 

-----Original message-----

From:Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>

Sent:Sat 12-01-2013 15:23

Subject:[BEE-L] Where's the bees?

To:[log in to unmask]; 

> The number of managed A. mellifera colonies has significantly declined in many countries in Europe and North America (Vanengelsdorp and Meixner 2010). In contrast, the number of managed A. mellifera colonies has increased over past decades in China. The managed honey bees in China grew from 3 million colonies in 1960 to 8.77 million colonies in 2008. China has the largest number of managed honey bee colonies, which produce the highest quantity of honey and royal jelly in the world; however, the presence of honey bee pathogens and parasites has never been rigorously identified in Chinese apiaries.



We found that N. ceranae was prevalent (70%) in the tested 

samples; however, N. apis was not detected



Although we detected only one colony infested by tracheal

mites (A. woodi) in our honey bee samples (YC, Table 2),

both V. destructor and T. mercedesae were prevalent among

A. m. ligustica colonies in China



All apiaries had both Varroa and Tropilaelaps mites in a single

hive (A. m. ligustica), although the infestation levels appear

to change seasonally. The negative impacts of Varroa mites

on A. mellifera colonies have been extensively documented

(for example, Rosenkranz et al. 2010); however, the effects

of Tropilaelaps mites are not well understood because Tropilaelaps

spp. is still considered to be restricted to Asia



Yang, B., Peng, G., Li, T., & Kadowaki, T. (2013). Molecular and phylogenetic characterization of honey bee viruses, Nosema microsporidia, protozoan parasites, and parasitic mites in China. Ecology and Evolution.



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