Presencia de Varroa destructor, Nosema apis y Acarapis woodi en abejas (Apis mellifera) de la región oriente del Estado de México

Abstract

Presence ofABSTRACT Beekeeping in Mexico is an important productive activity, but it is threatened by the presence of diseases that affect the development and production of the colonies. The aim of this research was to determine, the frequency and degree of infestation of Varroa destructor, Nosema apis, and Acarapis woodi in honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies from the east region in the State of Mexico. A total of 93 samples were collected from five town councils with beekeepers organized in the region, samples were analyzed for these three pathogens. A statistical comparison between five town councils was performed. The results indicated that all samples were positive (100 %) to V. destructor with levels from 0.5 to 22.1 %, but they were negative to Nosema and Acariosis. The town council of Tlalmanalco registered the highest values of V. destructor with 7.9 % (P ≤ 0.05). The results suggest that Varroatosis is an important disease for the region, but Nosema and A. woddi do not pose a threat to this bee population. Keywords: Apis mellifera, diagnosis, infestation. RESUMENLa apicultura en México es una actividad importante para el sector pecuario, amenazada por la presencia de enfermedades que afectan el desarrollo y la producción de las colonias. El objetivo de esta investigación fue cuantificar la presencia de Varroa destructor, Nosema apis y Acarapis woodi en colmenas de la región oriente del Estado de México. Se realizó una colecta de 93 muestras de colmenas en cinco municipios con apicultores organizados de la región; las muestras fueron analizadas para diagnosticar las tres enfermedades. Se realizó una comparación estadística entre los cinco municipios y los resultados indicaron que todas las muestras fueron positivas (100 %) para Varroa con niveles de infestación de 0.5 a 22.1 %, para Nosema y Acarapis todas las muestras fueron negativas. El Municipio de Tlalmanalco registró los valores más altos de Varroa con 7.9 % (P ≤ 0.05). Los resultados sugieren que Varroasis es una enfermedad de importancia para la región, pero Nosema y Acariosis no representan una amenaza para estas poblaciones de abejas. Palabras clave: Apis mellifera, diagnóstico, infestación.

Acarapis woodi, endoparasite of honeybees, from being qualified as the pest of the century to a forgotten case in Mexico

“…Back then, Eischen et al (1990) estimated that 60% of the colonies were infested, while Romero-Vera and Otero-Colina estimated an almost 100% infestation and comparable levels of severity (number of A. woodi specimens in individual bees) among Africanized and European bees. These results contrast both with the most recent data (Marínez Puc et al, 2011;Martínez-Cesáreo et al, 2016) and with this research.…”

“…No bees from the examined colonies were infested by A. woodi (Table 1). This result agrees with the findings of Martínez-Puc et al (2011) and Martínez-Cesáreo et al (2016), who did not detect infestation by A. woodi mite in bee colonies from the states of Yucatán and Estado de México, respectively. For their part, García-Figueroa and Arechavaleta-Velasco (2018) estimated a 0.02% prevalence of infested bees in the state of Morelos.…”

Fitoterapia una alternativa de control de plagas y enfermedades de abejas

“…The presence of the Varroa destructor mite is the main vector of these pathological processes 11,12 . This infestation caused by an ectoparasitic mite [13][14][15] is distributed in most countries of the world 16 and is the one that most concerns beekeepers 3,13,14 . Currently in Mexico, the presence of varroasis has been reported in all states 7,[13][14][15]17 , the state of Veracruz presented the first report of identification in the 1990s 13 .…”

Prevalence of Adult Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Pests and Pathogens in the Five Beekeeping Regions of Mexico

“…Acarapis woodi was diagnosed in only 0.3% of the colonies at the national level and was found in only one beekeeping region, although again, the method used to identify the mite may fail to detect it at very low levels of infestation. Similarly, other relatively recent surveys conducted in Mexico have failed to identify the mite, or have found it at a very low frequency (<1%) in surveys conducted in the High Plateau region [55,56]. Conversely, in surveys conducted between 1981 and 1983, 3 of every 10 colonies sampled in the five beekeeping regions of Mexico were positive for the mite [18,57].…”