Sudden deaths and colony population decline in Greek honey bee colonies
Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. Volume 105, Issue 3, November 2010, Pages 335–340
This study reports honey bee colony losses associated with specific symptomatology that occurred in the summer in Greece. Whilst substantial losses have been attributed to a heavy infestation by V. destructor and its close associate DWV (de Miranda et al., 2010), mite infestation was low in adult honey bee samples collected from Greek colonies suffering summer losses. The current study reports the presence of five bee viruses (ABPV, CBPV, SBV, BQCV, DWV) in adult bee populations in Greece.
A key commonality between all the apiaries suffering symptoms is that all belonged to migratory beekeepers. The constant relocation typified by migratory beekeeping is stressful for the bees, probably depresses the immune system and advances conta- gious diseases. Migration often serves to pollinate or derive a particular honey crop at a particular time of year, and so can result in a sudden increase in local colony density. This increases the risk of disease spread between colonies
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Rates of single and multiple virus infection in the honey bee, Apis mellifera
Acta Veterinaria Brasilica March 11 (2017) 85-89
In this study, we determine if management practices affect the rates of infection for six common viruses by comparing the rates of infection between migratory, queen breeder, and hobbyist beekeepers.
It was found that migratory beekeepers had higher rates of infection for two viruses, IAPV and KBV, and higher rates of multiple viral infections. IAPV was one of the first viruses thought to be associated with CCD (COX-FOSTER et al., 2007). A significant association is found in this study with migratory beekeeping practices. With respect to multiple infections, this study confirms that migratory beekeepers have higher rates than stationary beekeepers.
Given that the bees kept by some migratory beekeepers are periodically stored in holding yards with thousands of colonies from around the country, while queen breeders and hobbyists keep their bees in relative isolation, there is a clear mechanism that could cause this pattern. Of course, this hypothesis is speculative at this point
PLB
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