Mime-Version: |
1.0 |
Content-Type: |
text/plain; charset="UTF-8" |
Date: |
Thu, 6 Apr 2023 08:03:50 -0400 |
Reply-To: |
|
Subject: |
|
Content-Transfer-Encoding: |
quoted-printable |
Message-ID: |
|
Sender: |
|
From: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
And in 2018 Malcolm Sanford summarized a visit to Cuba as "Beekeeping in Guantanamera" in Bee Culture:
https://www.beeculture.com/beekeeping-in-guantanamera/
Data on the actual infestation rate with varroa in healthy tropical colonies is hard to find. There are a lot of reports that say either Africanized bees or selected European bees in the tropics are tolerant or resistant to varroa citing low mortality, productivity but somehow few show at what levels of varroa this is occurring. When it is reported, it tends to be quite high compared to values we consider harmless in temperate North America and Europe. Sparse data from Latin America and the Caribbean supports this concept.
Speculating, but there may be something about some tropical or subtropical regions that allows survival and production at higher levels of varroa. Year round brood production obviously overall favors varroa growth. However, some areas in the tropics have low intensity constant flows, at least compared to some of the higher latitudes of North America and Europe. Under those conditions, explosive colony growth does not happen, and drone production is low or at least not very high. Also, a steady rate of new emerging bees may produce enough replacement workers to counteract earlier deaths of adult workers because of varroa (and viruses). Additionally, the constant presence of brood may actually be beneficial if colonies have some level of hygienic activity- a constant, even low level, targeting of infested brood may be all that is needed to keep colonies from getting to the tipping point of serious effects or death.
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
|
|