Study on the hygenic and grooming behaviours of Iranain honeybees ‏‎colonies (Apis mellifera meda‎‎)‎‏ in the third and fourth generation of breeding plan for resistance to Varroa distructor

Subject Areas : entomology and othea arthropods

A. Mansourizalani ¹ , gholamhosein tahmasbi ² , N. Emam Jomeh kashani ³ , M. Amin Afshar ⁴ , A. Ghazi Khani Shad ⁵

1 - Department of Animal Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 - عضو هیئت علمی موسسه تحقیقات علوم دامی کشور
3 - Department of Animal Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
4 - Department of Animal Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
5 - Department of Animal Science, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran

Received: 2017-08-02 Accepted : 2018-02-05 Published : 2018-05-22

Keywords:

Abstract :

Due to the harmful effects of using chemical pesticides to control Varroa in honey bee colonies, the use of non-chemical methods such as hygenic behaviors of honey bee has been considered. The hygenic behaviour includes detection of dead, infected or abnormal infants in breed cells, uncapping, removing the broods and grooming to remove Varroa from the body. These hygenic behaviours are important defense mechanisms against a variety of pathogens such as bee bacteria, fungi and also Varroa mites. In this research, the hygenic mechanism and grooming behaviour of Iranian honey bees against Varroa mite was investigated in two generations. The study was accomplished on 60 colonies (30 resistant and 30 sensitive colonies as control) of Alborz National Institute of Animal Science Research in two sessions: one day a week from September to October 2014, and from June to October 2015. To measure the grooming behaviour, grease-treated plates were installed in the floor of the test bed and the number of healthy and unhealthy Varroa Mite on the plates was counted. The rate of uncapping and removed of dead broods was determined in resistant and control colonies on June 2014 and October 2015. To determine the hygenic behaviour, liquid Nitrogen was used to kill pupae. The number of uncapped and discharged cells was counted in three periods of 24, 48 and 72 hours after the application of liquid nitrogen. Colonies that removed more than 95% of dead, infected or abnormal broods within 48 hours were considered as very hygienic colonies.The average of grooming behaviour in 2014 and 2015 was 61 ± 1 and 65 ± 3 per colony respectively (p