40 Q&A on Bee Health and Beekeeping

PRESENTATION

BROCHURE Aránzazu Meana Mañes Mariano Higes Pascual Raquel Martín Hernández

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40 Q&A About Bee Health and Beekeeping

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40 Q&A About Bee Health and Beekeeping Aránzazu Meana Mañes Mariano Higes Pascual Raquel Martín Hernández

The text is divided into three main chapters, which cover the basics of beekeeping, honey production, and bee health.

The highly practical format of the text, which includes over 150 images and diagrams, will be of great interest to experienced professionals as well as newcomers to the field.

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This eminently practical book is aimed at professionals in the sector and covers the most important aspects of beekeeping. The information is presented in a unique manner, using a question-and-answer format intended to stimulate the reader’s curiosity and enhance knowledge acquisition.

The text is divided into three main chapters, which cover the basics of beekeeping, honey production, and bee health.

The highly practical format of the text, which includes over 150 images and diagrams, will be of great interest to experienced professionals as well as newcomers to the field.

$00.00

40 Q&A About Bee Health and Beekeeping

40 Q&A about Bee Health and Beekeeping

Aránzazu Meana Mañes Mariano Higes Pascual Raquel Martín Hernández

This eminently practical book is aimed at professionals in the sector and covers the most important aspects of beekeeping. The information is presented in a unique manner, using a question-and-answer format intended to stimulate the reader’s curiosity and enhance knowledge acquisition.

40 Q&A About Bee Health and Beekeeping Aránzazu Meana Mañes Mariano Higes Pascual Raquel Martín Hernández

£00.00

TARGET AUDIENCE:

✱ Production animal vets. Bees ✱ Veterinary students FORMAT: 17 × 24 cm NUMBER OF PAGES: 192 RETAIL PRICE NUMBER OF IMAGES: 160 BINDING: hardcover ISBN: 9788418498565 PUBLISHING DATE: December 2020

€65

Authors ARÁNZAZU MEANA MAÑES Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UCM, Diplomate of the European Veterinary Parasitology College (EVPC). Member of the Spanish Society of Parasitology (SEP) and the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP).

MARIANO HIGES PASCUAL Apiculture Diseases Area of the Marchamalo Apiculture and Agri-environmental Centre (IRIAF, Castilla-La Mancha Department of Agriculture).

RAQUEL MARTÍN HERNÁNDEZ INCRECYT researcher at the Marchamalo Apiculture and Agri-environmental Centre (CIAPA).

KEY FEATURES:

➜ Written by renowned specialists in this topic. ➜ Provides useful information on health and beekeeping. ➜ Didactic and easy to read text with a wealth of pictures and diagrams to better understand the information.

Presentation of the book This text is based on the experience of the authors and provides the reader with an approach to learning which, while original, is far from new, based as it is on Socrates” maieutic method (Greek —µαιευτικη— which translates to “midwifery”). This system is designed to “give birth” to a thinking human being by posing questions over which the reader ponders before coming up with the answer. Asking questions and seeking answers is a daily feature of our professional lives. As such, the authors have applied this structure to the text in an attempt to stimulate curiosity and shed light upon the knowledge that each of us already has.

By presenting questions and answers on 40 situations commonly encountered by veterinary practitioners specialised in beekeeping, this book provides a practical overview of the aspects of beekeeping that are of greatest relevance to veterinary professionals.

The information found in these pages differs to that which can be found in online sources. This original text constitutes a comprehensive and up-to-date review of information and concepts commensurate with the level of academic training of a veterinary surgeon.

The book is divided into three chapters. The first provides the reader with an adequate level of general knowledge about beekeeping, including the main morphological and biological characteristics of the honeybee, as well as historical aspects necessary to understand the current status and the enormous potential of beekeeping both in Western and developing countries.

hkeita/shutterstock.com

All questions in the second chapter relate to various aspects of beekeeping, from descriptions of the hive to the various products that can be obtained. The third and most comprehensive chapter focuses on basic knowledge about pathogens of the adult bee and brood, and includes some interesting questions about pests that can affect hives. An emphasis is placed on clinical aspects and control measures, based on knowledge of the biology of the causative agents, pathogenic mechanisms, and epidemiological factors of the main diseases.

The inclusion of 150 images and diagrams make this didactic text on beekeeping and bee health a unique addition to the existing literature.

The authors have sought to present this discipline in a fun and original manner, and have included many concepts that receive little attention in most Spanish and European universities.

All of the cases presented and resolved in the text are real, and the vast majority reflect the expertise of the authors or their colleagues, acquired in the field over many years dedicated to this veterinary specialty.

The authors Aránzazu Meana Mañes DVM PhD DipEVPC Degree and PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Professor of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UCM, and diplomate of the European Veterinary Parasitology College (EVPC).

Aránzazu Meana Mañes completed postdoctoral stays at the universities of Cambridge and Glasgow (UK), and has served as a visiting professor at universities in Europe (Ghent, Liege), Africa (Ghana), and the Americas (US, Argentina). She has worked as assistant director of the Department of Animal Health of the UCM, and has sat on expert committees of the Ministry of Health, Education and Science, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. She is a member of the Spanish Society of Parasitology (SEP), the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology, and the European Veterinary Parasitology College (EVPC), of which she is currently the secretary.

After a brief spell in clinical practice, she focused on teaching and research at the UCM. Her specialities include the pathophysiology, epidemiology, and control of the most important parasitic diseases of domestic and farm animals. Her work on pathologies of bees is largely linked to a collaboration, ongoing since 1991, with the Marchamalo Apiculture and Agri-environmental Centre, as well as short stays in specialised centres. Within this field she has led several research projects and directed five PhD theses on digestive processes and ectoparasitosis of bees. To date, she has published approximately 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and nearly 50 in science magazines focusing on different areas of veterinary parasitology.

Her contributions to the field include the description of new species of parasites of horses and bees, including Nosema ceranae, which is responsible for a worldwide decline in hive numbers. She has also been involved in clinical trials of the antiparasitic efficacy of new drugs for ruminants, horses, and bees.

She has authored several chapters of the Spanish-language veterinary textbook Parasitología Veterinaria, and three books on ovine, equine, and bovine parasitosis. Recently, she directed the first Specialist in Bee Health and Beekeeping course, which fulfilled the expectations of all involved.

Mariano Higes Pascual DVM PhD Degree and PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the Complutense University of Madrid. Head of the Bee Pathologies area of the Marchamalo Apiculture and Agri-environmental Centre, Castilla-La Mancha (IRIAF, Ministry of Agriculture), he also collaborates with the Department of Animal Health of the Veterinary Faculty of the UCM and teaches the faculty’s Specialist in Bee Health and Production course.

He has completed postdoctoral stays at the Universities of Mar del Plata (Argentina) and Ghent (Belgium) and in various European beekeeping research centres (including the INRA in France). He has sat on expert committees of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of

40 Q&A about Bee Health and Beekeeping

Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, is a member of the Spanish Society of Parasitology (SEP), and evaluates scientific research projects for national and international agencies. He also works as a reviewer for major scientific journals specialising in his field of research.

After a short period in clinical practice, he subsequently focused on research on pathologies of bees, an area to which he has dedicated his career for the last 25 years. His speciality is the pathophysiology, epidemiology, and control of major diseases of honeybees and bumblebees. In this field, he has overseen more than 35 research projects, 7 seven doctoral theses, and several Master’s and graduate theses. He has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and nearly 60 in popular science magazines on various aspects of bee pathologies.

His contributions to the field include the development of techniques for the control of varroosis of honeybees, new treatments for this disease, and laboratory techniques for the study of the main pathogens of honeybees. Without doubt, one of his main achievements has been the detection of the parasite Nosema ceranae in European bees, and his description of its life cycle and pathogenic mechanism. This microsporidium constitutes a major global risk to beekeeping, and is responsible for the loss of hives worldwide.

Raquel Martín Hernández DVM PhD Degree and PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the Complutense University of Madrid and INCRECYT researcher at the Marchamalo Apiculture and Agri-environmental Centre (ICSF), part of the IRIAF of Castilla-La Mancha.

She began her professional activity as a specialist in animal experimentation and small animals. However, she has primarily focused on entomological research in the field of animal health, to which she has dedicated her career over the last 20 years.

In 1999 she began to acquire experience in the field of bee health, beginning a postdoctoral fellowship at the Marchamalo Apiculture and Agri-environmental Centre, and has since worked primarily in this field. She has participated in numerous research projects, five in the role of principal investigator. She has directed four doctoral theses on pathogens of bees. Her research has been published in over 100 publications, and includes 78 articles in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of parasitology, entomology, microbiology, and veterinary science.

She also holds several patents related to pathologies of bees.

She has completed stays in research institutions in the UK and has been invited to present her research to research centres (Italy, Portugal, Uruguay, Canada), international bee health organisations (European Commission, AEM), national and international universities (UCM, UAM, Chile, Ghana), and numerous beekeeping associations. She regularly participates in international meetings on bee health and is a member of working and research groups in this sector (COLOSS, SUPER-B). She has sat on expert committees of the ministries of Health, Education and Science, and Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and is a member of the Spanish Society of Parasitology (SEP) and the European Association for Bee Research (EURBEE).

Her contributions to the field include the identification of new species of parasite of bees, including Nosema ceranae. She has also described the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and control of the disease caused by this pathogen, which accounts for significant losses in bees and hives worldwide. Much of her research is centred on diseases of bees. She has contributed significantly to the development of molecular methods for the diagnosis of numerous agents and participated in clinical trials of the antiparasitic efficacy of new drugs for the control of ticks and of diseases of bees.

Table of contents 1. Beekeeping basics: Q & A 1. Why are bees considered livestock?

2. What do bees collect from flowers?

3. What is polyethism?

2. Production: Q & A Introduction 4. What is a movable hive?

5. What is the best type of hive?

6. What is wax foundation?

7. When should I check the hives?

8. Should I place the apiary in the shade?

9. How do I multiply a honey bee colony?

10. When should I buy a truck for beekeeping activities?

11. How do I extract honey?

12. What is organic beekeeping?

13. How can I raise queens?

14. Which honey is the best?

15. When is royal jelly obtained?

16. What is pollen used for?

3. Health: Q & A Introduction 17. What should I look for when inspecting an apiary?

18. How do I collect samples from an apiary?

19. What can I see with the naked eye on examining a sample of bees?

20. Are pesticides the main threat to honey bees?

21. How do varroa mites breathe?

22. How do varroa mites live?

23. What effect do varroa mites have in hives?

24. How is varroosis evaluated?

25. When can a large varroa mites infestation occur?

26. How can I control varroosis?

27. What is acarapisosis?

28. What do Nosema parasites look like?

29. How do Nosema parasites affect bees?

30. What effect do Nosema parasites have in hives and how can I control it?

31. How do I evaluate nosemosis?

32. When can nosemosis type C appear and what can I do?

33. What are trypanosomatids?

34. What are neogregarines?

35. Is foulbrood a serious disease?

36. How do I control ascospherosis?

37. What viruses can affect adult bees?

38. What viruses affect the brood?

39. How should I deal with wasps?

40. What other agents may affect the hive?

Plaza Antonio Beltrán Martínez, 1 Centro Empresarial El Trovador planta 8, oficina 50002 Zaragoza, Spain

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+34 976 461 480

Aránzazu Meana Mañes Mariano Higes Pascual Raquel Martín Hernández

Aránzazu Meana Mañes Mariano Higes Pascual Raquel Martín Hernández

40 Q&A About Bee Health and Beekeeping

40 Q&A About Bee Health and Beekeeping

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Health: Q & A

22

How do varroa mites live?

During a school group’s visit to one of the Alcarria bee museums, the children were able to observe how bees lived in a glass hive. One of the children, who was watching very closely, observed that some of them had something on their back and asked the guide if they were ticks. When the guide answered no, but said they were very similar, the excited boy wanted to see the rest of the tick family. He explained to the guide that his father had cows and, when they had ticks, he was able to identify the large mother, the smaller father, and the even smaller baby ticks. The guide explained that varroa mites do not live on top of the bee.

1. Where are the male varroa mites?

2. What are the stages of development of varroa mites?

3. How do varroa mites multiply?

1

Where are the male varroa mites?

Varroa mites exhibit clear sexual dimorphism. Adult females are large (oval, 1.2 mm × 1.7 mm) and reddish brown, while males are smaller (almost spherical, 0.75 mm × 0.70 mm), whitish, with proportionally longer legs than females and without apoteles, meaning that they cannot effectively attach themselves to bees. Males also show other morphological adaptations necessary for the main role they play in the mite’s biological cycle: reproduction. Thus, their chelicerae are modified to form the spermatodactyl, a structure similar to a

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cannula with which sperm is transferred to the genital tract of the female mite.

The males live inside the capped brood cells and emerge from the first egg that the fertile varroa mite lays inside them, approximately 3 days after operculation. They are considered incapable of self-feeding and are highly sensitive to dehydration. They die soon after the birth of young bees. Males are difficult to see owing to their short life span, which occurs completely inside the brood cell. Furthermore, they are eliminated outdoors during the process of cleaning of the newborn bee.

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How do varroa mites live?

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Capsule for the artificial development of varroa mites.

The female lays the first egg 60 hours after capping of the cell; this egg is not fertilised and since it is haploid it gives rise to a male. Next, diploid (fertilised) eggs are laid every 30 hours. Females develop sequentially, but not all will become adults.

2

What are the stages of development of varroa mites?

The life cycle of varroa mites has two distinct phases: a phoretic phase in which the females attach themselves to the adult bees, and a reproductive phase that occurs within the capped brood cells of drones and workers.

In the phoretic phase, the mites are transported by the adult bees to the brood, where they reproduce, and are also spread between hives by foraging bees during swarming, drift, pillage and drone flight. This phase can last from 7–8 days to several months. During this period, varroa mites have the ability to feed on the haemolymph of adult bees and are normally found in the spaces between sternites and between tergites, as well as on the thorax and abdomen. During the winter, in the absence of brood, mites can survive for long periods on bees (mainly in the first two of the aforementioned locations) and then continue their biological cycle once brood is again produced in early spring.

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Varroa mites exhibit clear sexual dimorphism. Males are smaller than females throughout all ontogenetic development and have longer legs relative to body size. The male matures before its sisters and waits in the cell until the female hatched from the first diploid egg matures about 20 hours later. The male uses its spermatodactyl to introduce sperm, which will be stored in the female’s spermatheca. Multiple mating commonly occurs until the next daughter matures and reaches the faecal site.

Several matings are required to fill the spermatheca of each female mite, which can hold up to 35 sperm.

The reproductive phase begins when the fertilised female varroa mite enters a brood cell containing L5 larva and is completed when the cells are capped. During this phase, male varroa mites, the nymphal phases (protonymph, deutonymph), as well as future adult female varroa mites can be found in the cell.

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Biological cycle of Varroa destructor

A male adult mite will emerge from the first fertilised egg Subsequent eggs will produce adult females

Egg

Protonymph Deutonymph

Adult male Adult female

The larval mite develops within the egg during the first few hours after oviposition. Between hatching and the adult phase, mites pass through the protonymph and deutonymph stages; females and males develop within 5.5 and 6.5 days, respectively. Females change their form during development from an oblong to an ovoid shape, and deutonymphs begin to darken at the periphery of the body, acquiring a reddish-brown colour after the final moulting. Males and nymphal stages are short-lived and can only be found within capped brood cells.

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How do varroa mites live?

3

101

How do varroa mites multiply?

The reproductive phase takes place inside the capped brood and varies in duration (12– 15 days) depending on the type of parasitised brood (worker or drone). To reproduce, one or more female mites penetrate a bee or drone cell that is about to be capped and hide at the bottom of the cell, in the brood food, waiting for the nurse bees to cap the cell.

After capping, the bee larva consumes the remaining food, at which time the mite frees itself from this substance and climbs onto the body of the larva. Next, the larva defecates and spins a cocoon around the cell wall, an operation that takes between 33 and 48 hours depending on whether the larva is a worker or drone. While the larva spins the cocoon, the mite remains on its body so as not to be trapped between the cocoon and the cell wall, which would prevent it from feeding. As soon as the larva completes the cocoon and enters the prepupal stage, it stretches on its back, and then remains motionless with its head oriented towards the operculum, occupying two thirds of the cell.

The mites concentrate their faeces at a specific point in the cocoon, generally close to the anal area of the pupa; they become less active and remain on their faeces, moving over the bee only to feed. These faeces consist primarily of guanidine and can serve as a clinical sign to diagnose infestation. Mites always feed on the bee’s abdominal area, avoiding damaging the host’s limbs, jaws, or wings, which would prevent the bee from breaking the operculum when the time comes, leaving the mite and its progeny trapped in the cell.

Oogenesis in female varroa mites is activated in response to different volatile substances produced by the host bee larva. Thus, between 60 and 70 hours post-operculation, the female lays its first egg in the anterior part of the cell, on the cocoon. After the bee has moulted, the mite prepares a single feeding site on the bee’s

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The mites live at the bottom of the parasitised cell, where faeces accumulate as deposits of white dust. To feed, the mother creates a hole in the cuticle of the pupa, usually located in the fifth segment. This behaviour is part of “parental care”, since the chelicerae of the larval stages are too soft to cut this cuticle and those of the male are adapted for the transfer of sperm. With a single hole, sequential feeding of mites is guaranteed.

cuticle, where it and its brood will feed at different stages of development, in strict order.

Varroa mites undergo gradual metamorphosis through different stages of development: egg, protonymph, deutonymph, and adult. Metamorphosis takes between 5.5 and 6.5 days, depending on the sex of the mite.

After the first egg, oviposition continues with one egg every 30 hours. The first egg is male (haploid) and the rest are female (diploid). This way, the male is already an adult when the first daughter reaches sexual maturity. Females are fertilised by the male inside the cell, since the male does not survive outside the cell. During the copulation process, the male transports the sperm with its mouthparts and introduces it into the adult females. This process is repeated several times. Each varroa mite lays a maximum of 5–6 eggs, depending on the duration of the capped brood phase (about 12 days in the case of workers and 15 days in the case of drones). By the time the bee larva hatches one or two mature females (fertilised or not) will

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Health: Q & A

have developed and will latch directly on to the bee. Once hatched, each bee cleans its own cell and, by removing the remains of the moult, eliminates the male and any immature forms remaining.

A female mite may have two or three reproductive cycles, and the number of viable daughters is estimated to range from 1.3 to 1.45 in worker cells and 2.2 to 2.6 in drone

cells, although these numbers are influenced by multiple factors. When the mites emerge from the cell with the bee that they have parasitised, they leave their host to locate bees of more than 2 days of age.

This cycle is repeated as long as there is brood in the hive. During the summer periods when there are around 10 generations of bees, the number of mites can increase exponentially.

On adult bees, phoretic female varroa mites can be transported to brood cells for reproduction or propagated via pillage or drift. They are usually hidden under the bee’s sternites, and suck substantial amounts of haemolymph from both adult bees and the larval stages within capped cells.

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