A Reciprocal Transplant Experiment Confirmed Mite-Resistance in a Honey Bee Population from Uruguay

In the past few years there has been an increasing interest for the study of honey bee populations that are naturally resistant to the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, aiming to identify the mechanisms that allow the bees to limit the reproduction of the mite. In eastern Uruguay there are still...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Veterinary sciences 2022-10, Vol.9 (11), p.596
Main Authors: Mendoza, Yamandú, Santos, Estela, Clavijo-Baquett, Sabrina, Invernizzi, Ciro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acaricides
Apis mellifera
Beekeeping
Bees
Behavior
Colonies
grooming
Honey
Hygiene
hygienic behavior
mite infestation
mite reproduction
Population
Population studies
Reproductive behavior
Varroa destructor
Winter
Workers (insect caste)
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Summary:In the past few years there has been an increasing interest for the study of honey bee populations that are naturally resistant to the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, aiming to identify the mechanisms that allow the bees to limit the reproduction of the mite. In eastern Uruguay there are still bees resistant to mites that survive without acaricides. In order to determine if the differential resistance to V. destructor was maintained in other environments, a reciprocal transplant experiment was performed between the mite-resistant bee colonies and the mite-susceptible bee colonies from the east and the west of the country, respectively, infesting bees with local mites. In both regions, the mite-resistant colonies expressed a higher hygienic behavior and presented a higher phoretic mites/reproductive mites and mites in drone cells/mites in worker cells ratio than the mite-susceptible colonies. All the mite-susceptible colonies died during fall–winter, while a considerable number of mite-resistant colonies survived until spring, especially in the east of the country. This study shows that the bees in the east of the country maintain in good measure the resistance to V. destructor in other regions and leaves open the possibility that the mites of the two populations have biases in the reproductive behavior.
ISSN:2306-7381
2306-7381
DOI:10.3390/vetsci9110596