Abstract

VARGAS-VALERO, Azucena; REYES-CARRILLO, José Luis; GASPAR-RAMIREZ, Octavio  and  MORENO-RESENDEZ, Alejandro. Parasitosis and pesticide residues in honey and wax in bee colonies. Ecosistemas y recur. agropecuarios [online]. 2021, vol.8, n.2, e2827.  Epub Jan 31, 2022. ISSN 2007-901X.  https://doi.org/10.19136/era.a8n2.2827.

In recent years, a syndrome called Colony Collapse Disorder has been observed and among the main causative factors being pesticides and the presence of pests and diseases. The purpose of this work was to determine and quantify the presence of pesticides in honey and wax samples, as well as to determine the prevalence and levels of infestation/infection of the main parasites in honey bee colonies that could be associated with this colonies losses. For two consecutive years, 132 and 125 samples of bees and honeycomb with honey and wax were obtained from the same number of colonies. To determine the pesticides in the first year, 12 samples of honey wax were analyzed; the pathogens were analyzed in all the samples of the two years. The greatest diversity of pesticides was detected in the wax. The intestinal parasite Nosema spp presented a 100% prevalence, with significant differences in the infection level, while the Varroa mite presented prevalences of 82.6% and 79.2% and not finding significant differences in the levels of infestation. The tracheal mite Acarapis woodi was absent in the analyzed samples. The results indicate that the presence of pesticides and pathogens contributed synergistically to the affectation of bees. So, more studies are required to know the individual importance of each factor that affects bee colonies in the region.

Keywords : Apis mellifera; colony collapse disorder; pathogens; prevalence.

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