Home sick: impacts of migratory beekeeping on honey bee (Apis mellifera) pests, pathogens, and colony size
Home sick: impacts of migratory beekeeping on honey bee (Apis mellifera) pests, pathogens, and colony size
Files
Publication or External Link
Date
2018-11-02
Authors
Alger, Samantha A.
Burnham, P. Alexander
Lamas, Zachary S.
Brody, Alison K.
Richardson, Leif L.
Advisor
Citation
Alger SA, Burnham PA, Lamas ZS, Brody AK, Richardson LL. 2018. Home sick: impacts of migratory beekeeping on honey bee (Apis mellifera) pests, pathogens, and colony size. PeerJ 6:e5812 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5812
DRUM DOI
Abstract
Honey bees are important pollinators of agricultural crops and the dramatic losses of
honey bee colonies have risen to a level of international concern. Potential contributors
to such losses include pesticide exposure, lack of floral resources and parasites and
pathogens. The damaging effects of all of these may be exacerbated by apicultural
practices. To meet the pollination demand of US crops, bees are transported to areas
of high pollination demand throughout the year. Compared to stationary colonies, risk
of parasitism and infectious disease may be greater for migratory bees than those that
remain in a single location, although this has not been experimentally established. Here,
we conducted a manipulative experiment to test whether viral pathogen and parasite
loads increase as a result of colonies being transported for pollination of a major US
crop, California almonds. We also tested if they subsequently transmit those diseases to
stationary colonies upon return to their home apiaries. Colonies started with equivalent
numbers of bees, however migratory colonies returned with fewer bees compared to
stationary colonies and this difference remained one month later. Migratory colonies
returned with higher black queen cell virus loads than stationary colonies, but loads
were similar between groups one month later. Colonies exposed to migratory bees
experienced a greater increase of deformed wing virus prevalence and load compared
to the isolated group. The three groups had similar infestations of Varroa mites upon
return of the migratory colonies. However, one month later, mite loads in migratory
colonies were significantly lower compared to the other groups, possibly because of
lower number of host bees. Our study demonstrates that migratory pollination practices
has varying health effects for honey bee colonies. Further research is necessary to
clarify how migratory pollination practices influence the disease dynamics of honey
bee diseases we describe here.
Notes
Partial funding for Open Access provided by the UMD Libraries' Open Access Publishing Fund.