rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Journal of Apicultural Sciencehttps://sciendo.com/journal/JAShttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/6472084a215d2f6c89db967b/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/JAS140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The honey bee has a significant environmental and economic impact. While collecting food or water, bees are exposed to negative physical and chemical factors that lead to physiological and behavioral changes and, consequently, even death. Along with the development of technology and communication, electromagnetic fields produced by artificial emitters have begun to have an impact on the environment. The aim of the study was to check whether the electromagnetic field also impacts antioxidant enzymes functioning in the honey bee's organism. The study was conducted under laboratory conditions, and one-day and seven-day-old honey bee workers were used in the experiment. Honey bee workers were exposed to an electromagnetic field with a frequency of 50Hz and variable intensity in the range of 1–10 kV/m. Immediately after the end of the exposure, hemolymph was collected from the bees for biochemical analysis. The results of the research did not show clearly whether changes in the activity of biochemical markers were affected by the time spent in the electromagnetic field or its intensity but did show that there was a difference in physiology between one-day-old and seven-day-old bees.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-00032023-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Surveys were conducted in Malatya and Elazığ provinces of Eastern Türkiye between 2018–2019 to detect the presence and distribution of <italic>Deformed wing virus</italic> (DWV), <italic>Acute bee paralysis virus</italic> (ABPV) and <italic>Black queen cell virus</italic> (BQCV) infecting honey bees and <italic>Varroa</italic> mites. Thirty <italic>Varroa</italic> mites feeding on honey bees and 147 honey bees were collected from twenty-five apiaries of Malatya and fifteen apiaries of Elazığ. The collected samples were subjected to reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. All tested viruses were found to be present in the samples singly or as mixed infections. The prevalence of the viruses were 23.81%, 12.93%, and 10.20% for DWV, ABPV and BQCV, respectively. Five out of thirty <italic>Varroa</italic> mites tested for the viruses were found to be infected only with DWV. Randomly chosen sequences of each detected virus’s partial polyprotein gene region were registered in GenBank under the accession numbers OP805878, OP805879, OP805880, OP805887, OP805888, OP805889, OP805890, OP805891 (DWV), OP805881, OP805882, OP805883, OP805884 (ABPV) and OP805885, OP805886 (BQCV). The phylogenetic tree of the viral isolates were compared with the world isolates. DWV isolates were found to be closely related to the UK, Lebanon, Türkiye, France, Germany and Israel isolates, whereas ABPV isolates were related to Türkiye, South Africa, Slovenia, Serbia, France, Hungary, Syria and USA isolates and BQCV isolates were related to China, South Korea, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, South Africa, Australia and Sweden isolates. The presence of DWV, ABPV and BQCV infections in Malatya and Elazığ provinces of Türkiye is revealed for the first time in this study.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-00062023-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Propolis (bee glue), a valuable biological mixture produced by European honey bees (<italic>Apis mellifera</italic> L.), is widely used as a remedy in traditional and alternative medicine, as an effective food biopreservative and as a nutritional value enhancer. The present study aimed to investigate eighty propolis samples collected from all twenty-eight districts of Bulgaria in the period of 2020–2022 in order to determine their physicochemical properties as well as their antioxidant and antimicrobial potential. The raw propolis samples exhibited brown or green colour depending on the climatic zone from which they are collected and pH values from 4.82 to 5.87, while the moisture content ranged between 0.98% and 2.97%. The total phenolics content (TPC) and total flavonoids content (TFC) varied from 63.14 mg GAE/g to 737.27 mg GAE/g, and from 29.22 mg QE/g to 234.17 mg QE/g, respectively. The propolis samples demonstrated significant antioxidant potential determined by DPPH and FRAP methods, from 18.56 mM TE/g to 1598.66 mM TE/g and from 82.28 mM TE/g to 1208.81 mM TE/g, respectively, whose values showed a positive correlation (<italic>r</italic>²) with the TPC and TFC. The results from the antimicrobial screening revealed that the methanolic propolis extracts in concentration of 20 mg/ml exhibited the highest inhibitory effect on the Gram-positive bacteria such as <italic>Micrococcus luteus</italic> 2YC-YT, <italic>Bacillus subtilis</italic> ATCC 6633, <italic>Staphylococcus aureus</italic> ATCC 25923, <italic>Listeria monocytogenes</italic> NBIMCC 8632 and <italic>Listeria innocua</italic> ATCC 33090.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-00042023-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Oilseed rape is an economically important crop and provides a good nectar resource. In this study, the nectar secretion characteristics of five winter oilseed rape (<italic>Brassica napus</italic> L.) cultivars in China were examined throughout the daytime. The correlations of corolla opening size, air temperature and relative humidity with nectar production were also determined. Different daily patterns of nectar secretion were detected in flowers opening at different times of the day, and similar trends were observed among cultivars. The nectar volume and nectar sugar concentration in flowers that opened before 9:00 peaked on the first day. The nectar volume of flowers that opened at 11:00 peaked on the second day, and the nectar sugar concentration peaked on the first day. The total nectar yield of flowers opening before 9:00 (4.422–5.265 μl) was lower than that of flowers opening at 11:00 (7.982–10.646 μl). The average nectar sugar concentration of flowers opening before 9:00 (18.4–23.3%) was higher than that of flowers opening at 11:00 (15.3–17.5%). The nectar volume was positively correlated with air temperature and relative humidity, while the nectar sugar concentration was positively correlated with air temperature and negatively correlated with relative humidity. The nectar volume and nectar sugar concentration were positively correlated with corolla opening size. The glucose/fructose ratio ranged from 0.89 to 1.44. These results will contribute to a better understanding of the nectar secretion patterns of <italic>B. napus</italic> L. and will support further studies assessing the melliferous potential of <italic>B. napus</italic> L. and the temporal dynamics of plant-pollinator interactions.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-00052023-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Two different levels of diversity within a colony were compared for the prevalence of pathogens and diseases. Lower genetic diversity was obtained in the colonies in which the queens were inseminated with semen collected from drones originating from a single colony, while greater was obtained in the colonies with queens inseminated with semen from drones of thirty different colonies. Bees were tested for <italic>Varroa destructor</italic> infestation, microsporidia <italic>Vairimorpha</italic> spp. infection, acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) and deformed wing virus (DWV). Colonies with a greater genetic diversity of workers in colonies were more infested with <italic>Varroa</italic> mites than genetically uniform colonies. <italic>Varroa</italic> infestation was not found to be associated directly with the weakening of bee colonies after winter. The two experimental groups had a similar number of colonies infected with <italic>Vairimorpha</italic>, and viruses. Intensity of <italic>Varroa</italic> infestation and <italic>Vairimorpha</italic> infection did not significantly affect the overwintering of bee colonies. Colonies in which DWV was detected significantly weakened during overwintering.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-00022023-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Mercury is a toxic metal which causes several serious health effects including kidney damage, anxiety depression and peripheral neuropathy, and because of its high volatility assessment in solid samples is problematic. In this study, forty-five samples of local Polish and imported honeys were analyzed by Direct Mercury Analyzer (DMA) for the determination of mercury content. The honey contamination was assessed regarding honey variety and country of origin. Hg level in all tested samples was found to not exceed the 0.81 μg/kg which was below 10% of the applicable law UE limit. Moreover, no statistically significant differences were found in the variety or geographical origin. The study concluded that the Direct Mercury Analyzer (DMA) instrument proved to be an excellent tool for screening mercury in honeys because of its simplicity, rapidity, low detection limit, accuracy and precision and no sample preparation.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2023-00012023-06-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0008<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Onion (<italic>Allium cepa</italic> L.) is a highly cross pollinated crop that needs insect pollination (entomophily) for optimum seed set. In the present study, more than 120 insect species were noted to visit onion flowers, out of which fifty-nine species were collected through in-situ sampling technique and identified up to species level. The Indian bee (<italic>Apis cerana indica</italic>) was the most abundant insect pollinator visiting onion flowers in the study location. The pollination behaviour and foraging activity of <italic>A. c. indica</italic> were assessed, and the pollen foragers were observed to be swift flyers visiting a significantly higher number of flowers per minute during the peak flowering period and spending less time per flower (3 seconds) to collect nectar from deep seated nectaries of the flowers. The seed yield enhancement assessed through entomophily and artificial pollination methods showed that the open pollinated flowers recorded the highest yield statistically, followed by <italic>A. c. indica</italic> and <italic>A. mellifera</italic> pollinated flowers. However in artificial pollination treatments, sponge puff pollinated flowers recorded significantly high seed yield per hectare and percentage seed set per umbel, followed by camel brush, hand gloves (cloth) and hand gloves (rubber). In conclusion, all the cross pollination treatments were statistically significant on the closed pollination treatment concerning to the entire yield parameters calculated.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00082022-08-18T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0013<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>We tested two summer protocols for oxytetracycline (OTC) administration on beehives to evaluate: toxicity for the bees, residues in honey and presence of genes encoding for OTC antibiotic resistance in bacteria isolated from the gut of adult bees. In July 2020, eighteen healthy colonies were divided into three groups. Two OTC treatment protocols - long and short, were devised, and one group was left untreated. We did not detect any toxicity on adult bees or brood but found OTC residues in the honey of the nest up to seven months after both treatments (210.3±221.2 µg/kg after long protocol; 216.2±238.4 µg/kg after short protocol), even in the untreated group (up to the mean 75.8±173.2 µg/kg). Antibiotic resistance genes were found, even in the untreated group, possibly due to the long exposure to antibiotics. More in-depth studies should be performed to verify how the long-term persistence of antibiotics impacted the beehive during the inactive season.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00132022-12-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0010<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Static sorption properties of pine honey (PH) and citrus honey (CH) were studied at 20, 30 and 40°C. Yeast formation was observed on the surface of honeys at water activity (a_w)&gt;0.7 at all temperatures. Visible yeast formation (YF) took place earlier in PH than in CH under the same conditions due to its characteristic higher pH and lower monosacchride content. The temperature was insignificantly effective on YF (p&gt;0.05). The honeys exhibited a sorption isotherm (SI) in the shape of a “J”. Their SIs exhibited desorption and adsorption at a_w&lt;0.7 and a_w&gt;0.7, respectively and the desorption part was almost linear. A_w=0.7 emerged as a border between the absence and presence of YF and between the desorption and adsorption. The SIs of honeys were insignificantly affected by temperature (p&gt;0.05). PH had a significantly lower SI than that of CH (p≤0.05) due to its characteristic lower monosacchride content. GAB equation exhibited a good fit to the honeys' SIs. Sorption heat vs equilibrium moisture content (EMC) revealed monolayer, multilayer and loosely bound free water regions in the SIs of PH and CH.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00102022-12-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0016<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>A common view is that honeybees are mostly managed by beekeepers for commercial purposes or as a hobby, especially in Europe. This misconception is probably due to the lack of systematic studies on wild colonies of honeybees in Europe in comparison to other regions of the world. Since we are used to considering this species as “domesticated”, we may be induced to disregard activities not distinctly linked with colony survival, reproduction, or productivity. Washboarding is one of them in which the entire colony stops resource collection activities; numerous individual bees assemble on the front side of the hive and perform repetitive movements back and forth. They are curiously synchronised but apparently without a scope. In this exploratory work, we carried out a literature review of available, mostly grey, literature. Assuming this behaviour may be linked to cavity-nesting and to tree trunks or rocks being rough surfaces hosting various cryptogams, we performed preliminary observations and manipulative experiments. From our survey, we depict that washboarding is frequently reported in grey literature/beekeepers’ reports, but rarely mentioned in scientific literature. Beekeepers who responded to a designed questionnaire observed this behaviour in various ecological situations, with no trend emerging. Our preliminary experiment of placing cryptogams in front of managed hives resulted in honeybees removing lichens (foliose types) or covering with propolis, and all species were affected. Further research is needed to clarify if lichens are removed because of their chemical compounds, because of hosting potentially toxic microorganisms, or collected as resources.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00162022-12-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0009<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p><italic>Varroa destructor</italic> parasitism is associated with extreme honey bee (<italic>Apis mellifera</italic>) colony losses in the northern hemisphere. <italic>Varroa destructor</italic> causes severe damage, including a decrease in bee longevity and immunosuppression, and acts as a vector for viruses, such as <italic>Deformed wing virus</italic> (DWV-A). The surveillance of viral pathogens in <italic>V. destructor</italic> samples is essential to assess risks of emerging virulent viral variants (such as VDV-1) and evaluate their impact on honey bee health. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify viral pathogens in <italic>V. destructor</italic> and honey bee samples collected in Ontario, Canada, from 2015 to 2019 with the use of metagenomics and real time PCR (qPCR). DWV-A and VDV-1 had the highest abundance of viral transcripts (7.5 log2 and 5.72 log2, respectively). Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) and <italic>Bee macula virus</italic> were also identified. Viral identification and quantification in <italic>V. destructor</italic> samples using metagenomics will facilitate the surveillance of viral pathogens. This surveillance technique will assist diagnostic laboratories in delivering timely and accurate diagnoses and risk assessments, which in turn will help honey bee producers to take adequate measures to mitigate the damage caused by <italic>V. destructor</italic> and associated viruses.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00092022-08-18T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0014<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Managed honey bee populations have fluctuated over the past several decades in the U.S. While a single factor has not been identified for these losses, the interaction between multiple biotic and abiotic stressors have been suggested to be responsible. Of major concern are several invasive parasite and pathogen species as well as colony management. A single honey bee colony often suffers from multiple harmful agents, that may act synergistically and cause greater declines in bee health. We conducted a survey to detect known and lesser-known honey bee parasites and pathogens. While previous research has primarily focused on commercially managed colonies, research is limited to pertaining parasite and pathogen prevalence in hobbyist managed colonies. Molecular diagnostics were used to screen 541 Arkansas (AR) honey bee colonies from 107 hobbyist beekeepers for eight <italic>A. mellifera</italic> parasite and pathogen species. Colony samples were obtained between 2015–2016 and represented forty-seven of the seventy-five AR counties. <italic>Vairimorpha ceranae</italic> (11.6% occurrence) and parasite <italic>Varroa destructor</italic> (49.4% occurrence) were relatively common in AR hobbyist colonies. Interestingly, the lesser-studied pathogenic trypanosome species, <italic>Lotmaria passim</italic>, was detected in 11.3% of the colonies and widespread in twenty of the forty-seven counties sampled. None of the honey bee pathogens <italic>Vairimorpha apis</italic>, <italic>Spiroplasma apis</italic>, <italic>S. melliferum</italic>, <italic>Crithidia mellificae</italic>, or the parasitic phorid fly, <italic>Apocephalus borealis</italic>, were detected in the colonies sampled. This study provides an extensive assessment of the parasite and pathogen species occurring at the AR state-level in hobbyist-managed honey bee colonies.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00142022-12-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0011<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>It is commonly known that two carbon dioxide treatments accelerate the beginning of egg laying in honey bee queens. However, the minimum time between anaesthesias needed for ovary activation has not yet been examined. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of time between carbon dioxide treatments on the onset of oviposition in instrumentally inseminated and virgin queen honey bees. About half of the queens were anaesthetised before insemination and a second time during insemination, and the rest of the queens were anaesthetised two times without insemination. The time between carbon dioxide treatments was as follows: 96, 48, 24, 12, 6, 3 hrs, 10 min, 5–6 sec. Queens in a control group were anaesthetised only once. The mean number of days between the second treatment and the onset of oviposition in particular groups and in the control group was 10.3, 7.6, 9.9, 10.5, 7.8, 10.9, 14.2, 15 and 21.9, respectively, and the median was 9, 7, 7, 8, 7, 8.5, 11.5, 13 and 21 days, respectively. Queens in groups 5–6 sec and 10 min began oviposition significantly earlier than those in control group, but significantly later than in groups from 3 to 96 hrs. Instrumentally inseminated queens started to lay eggs at the same time (mean 12 and median 9 days after second treatment) as queens treated with carbon dioxide without insemination (mean 11.7 and median 9 days).</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00112022-12-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0015<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The aim of the study was to analyse the intestinal microbiota of honey bees (<italic>Apis mellifera</italic>) treated with amitraz. In the present study, the microbiological profile of the honey bee intestines showed minor changes in the microbiota following the application of amitraz. A comparison of the numbers of bacteria and fungi revealed a positive downward trend in the number of fungi. The number of decreased bacteria, included <italic>E. coli</italic> and especially <italic>Clostridium</italic> spp., which were not isolated from the intestines of bees treated with amitraz. The number of lactic acid bacteria before and after treatment was at a similar level of 8.3 log cfu/g of intestinal contents.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00152022-12-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0012<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In this review, we have focused on analytical methods for characterizing the geographical and botanical origin of honey. We evaluated works concerning the methods most used in the analysis of the geographical and botanical origin of honey, paying particular attention to what has been used in the last decade. We investigated starting from the most common methods used at the beginning of this century, such as melissopalynological analysis, the analysis of the mineral profile or chemico-physical parameters, to the current state-of-the-art technologies and methods including the metabolomic and genomic approaches, the blockchain or Internet of Things. For each methodology, several examples have been given, and advantages and limitations are explained. Whereas currently only one approach is rarely used, many methods are used in combination because a combined approach usually leads to greater accuracy, also thanks to the current possibilities that multivariate statistical methods or chemometric methods offers us.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00122022-12-27T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In this study, we conducted a six-month survey to evaluate the current status of three common honey bee viruses (black queen cell virus [BQCV], acute bee paralysis virus [ABPV], and sacbrood virus [SBV]) in Turkey’s Bingöl region and revealed their phylogenetic relationships with the same types of viruses in other parts of the world. We randomly sampled 384 worker honey bees from a total of 128 apiaries from different locations of this region. Molecular tests confirmed the presence of SBV and BQCV, with infection rates of 7.03% and 11.7%, respectively, but ABPV could not be detected in any of the surveyed apiaries. In addition, double infection was detected in an apiary with an infection rate of 0.78%. The sequences of a partial polyprotein gene region of a randomly selected isolate from each detected virus were collected and registered in GenBank under the accession numbers MZ357971 and MZ357972 for SBV and MZ357974 for BQCV. The nucleotide sequence similarity of Turkish BQCV and SBV isolates was 75.71–96.58% and 85.96–92.98%, respectively. A comparison of the phylogenetic tree of Bingöl honey bee viral genomes with other isolates from around the world revealed that Bingöl SBV isolates were closely related to another Turkey isolate while Bingöl BQCV isolate to France, Italy, Australia, and Brazil isolates. To our knowledge, the presence and phylogenetic affinity of SBV and BQCV viruses detected in the present study is the first recording for Turkey’s Bingöl province.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00062022-06-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Ectothermic organisms including insects are highly vulnerable to climate warming which not only influences their biology, ecology and physiology but also affects their symbiotic gut microbiota. This study determined the impact of ambient (control) and simulated warmer (heating) climatic conditions on the microclimate of brood nest and gut bacterial abundance of two <italic>Apis mellifera</italic> subspecies i.e. <italic>A. mellifera ligustica</italic> and <italic>A. mellifera sinisxinyuan</italic>. For both subspecies, brood nest temperature and relative humidity under the heating treatment were significantly different (p≤0.001) than those under the control treatment. Quantitative PCR data revealed that the abundance of gut bacteria (16<italic>S r</italic>RNA gene copy numbers) of <italic>A. mellifera ligustica</italic> and <italic>A. mellifera sinisxinyuan</italic> larvae was significantly higher (P≤0.05), 1.73 and 5.32 fold higher respectively, during the heating treatment than those in control conditions. Although gut bacterial abundance of <italic>A. mellifera ligustica</italic> (1.67 × 10⁷ copies g⁻¹ fw) and <italic>A. mellifera sinisxinyuan</italic> (1.7 × 10⁷ copies g⁻¹ fw) larvae was similar during the control treatment, <italic>A. mellifera sinisxinyuan</italic> larvae exhibited three times greater gut bacterial abundance than <italic>A. mellifera ligustica</italic> during the heating treatment. Similarly, adult <italic>A. mellifera sinisxinyuan</italic> bees harboured significantly greater bacterial abundance during the heating treatment than control. These findings elucidate that climate warming may significantly affect the honeybee colony microclimate and their gut bacterial abundance. However, further studies are needed to better understand how gut microbial community may influence the learning, physiological and behavioural mechanisms of the host bees in a climate warming scenario.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00022022-06-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The small hive beetle (SHB), <italic>Aethina tumida</italic> Murray, is a parasite of honey bee colonies and causes the fermentation of honey as well as colony collapse. Outbreaks have been confirmed in Africa, America, Europe as well as Asia, where an outbreak was reported in the Philippines and South Korea in 2014 and 2017, respectively. In South Korea, in September 2016, this honey bee parasite was first identified in apiaries in Miryang, Gyeongnam Province. However, the invasion pathway of SHB has not been identified, and honey bee pathogens harbored by SHB have not been well characterized. Therefore, phylogenetic analysis of SHB with the use of COI gene and detection of fourteen common honey bee pathogens were conducted in this study. The confirmation of the fourteen honey bee pathogens in SHB showed that this beetle carries black queen cell virus and deformed wing virus. Therefore, SHB could have a role in the spread of these viruses. The way of entry of the SHB to South Korea remains undetermined, but the phylogenetic analysis of the COI gene revealed that it was most similar to species found in the USA. There is an urgent need for national-level monitoring and quarantine measures for preventing the spread of SHB infestation in South Korea.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00042022-06-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Pollen nutrition is critical for the development and well-being of the honeybee. Previous studies have compared the effect of pollen and carbohydrate-only diet on honeybee physiology. The effect of a monofloral versus polyfloral diet on the African honeybee (<italic>Apis mellifera scutellata</italic>) is poorly understood. This knowledge is critical as diversity-rich habitats are being altered to less diverse environments through increased urbanization and intensified agricultural activities, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we report how lowly diverse (LD) and highly diverse (HD) pollen diets influence honeybee life-history traits and physiology. To achieve this, we fed caged bees with the two pollen diets and tested their effects on the parameters of survival, body weight, pollen consumption, and immune response. HD-fed bees had significantly higher survival and greater pollen consumption than LD-fed bees. However, LD-fed bees were heavier than HD-fed bees. The correlation between body weight gain and pollen consumption was expressed strongly in HD-fed bees than in LD-fed bees. Overall, our findings reveal the benefits that the highly diverse polyfloral diets provide to honeybee workers. This study shows how pollen diversity influences honeybee life-history traits, thus informing the need for conserving the biodiversity of environments for safeguarding the health of honeybees and other pollinators.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00032022-06-22T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Honeybee venom (HBV) is an important product of beehives, and its benefits for health have been rediscovered by modern medicine. Since HBV has the potential to treat some diseases, its quality and production conditions require a detailed investigation. The objective of this study is to understand how season, harvesting time (day or night), harvesting site of beehives (inside or entrance) and geographic location affects quality through the analysis of apamin, melittin and phospholipase A_{<italic>2</italic>} (PLA2) content. Each set of six colonies were used to understand the differences in these components when HBV is harvested in the daytime either from the entrance or inside of the hives and nighttime from the inside of the hives. The experiment also investigated seasonal differences as the samples were harvested each month from May to August 2019 in our apiary. Furthermore, the effect of geographic location on quality was examined through the comparison of the data obtained from twenty-seven samples collected by beekeepers using the same device, located in the Turkish cities of Manisa, Muğla, Balıkesir, Düzce and Mersin. The results demonstrated that statistically significant differences in the amounts of analyzed components were not dependent on harvesting time, collection site on the beehives or season. On the other hand, region samples significantly differed in the amounts of all three components, ranging from 1.28% to 3.81% for apamin, 19.51–64.03% for melittin and 7.22%–28.18% for PLA2. However, beekeepers’ improper practices during harvesting and storing might be the most critical parameters that determine the quality of HBV.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jas-2022-00012022-06-22T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1