A comparative study of the frequency and intensity of nosemosis based on individual and composite samples of live bees in the apiaries of the cities of East Azerbaijan province

Subject Areas : Veterinary Clinical Pathology

Abbas Imani Baran ¹ , Gholamreza Hamidian ²

1 - Associate Professor, Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
2 - Associate Professor, Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

Received: 2022-09-10 Accepted : 2022-12-20 Published : 2022-11-22

Keywords: Intensity, frequency, Nosemosis, Individual sampling, Composite sampling,

Abstract :

Due to the lack of an international standard method to determine the frequency, prevalence and intensity of nosemosis, the researchers are still using individual or composite sampling methods. This study was aimed to compare the frequency and intensity of nosemosis based on the above mentioned methods in the apiaries of East Azerbaijan province. To this end, 5 apiaries from 5 cities of East Azerbaijan province were randomly selected. Three hives from each apiary and 10 bees from each hive (equally from inside and outside) were sampled. To determine the frequency, the spore presence in the samples was evaluated. To determine the intensity, the spore count in one bee was calculated in the individual samples and mean spore count per bee in the composite samples. In both methods, 100% frequency was obtained for all samples. To compare infection intensity in both sampling methods, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's post hoc test were used. To compare the results of two methods, generally, and also in each city, separately, independent T-test was used. In both methods, the highest intensity was related to samples from Tabriz (p<0.05). However, in the individual sampling method, the infection intensity in Osku samples was significantly lower (p<0.001). Also, in comparison of the two sampling methods, there was generally no statistical difference between the sampling methods and even in one city (p>0.05). In individual samples, overall, the intensity was higher in bees outside of the hive. Based on the average results, the intensity of nosemosis in composite samples was much higher than individual samples.

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