نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
Introduction: The honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) is the most important insect in nature, with ecological value in terms of pollination and economic value in terms of the production of honey, pollen, royal jelly, venom, propolis, and wax. Despite all these ecological, economic, and social benefits, nowadays honey bee colonies face numerous challenges including pests and diseases. One of the major challenges in modern beekeeping is the Varroa mite and finding solutions to resistance against this parasite. This pest feeds on the fat bodies and hemolymph of different developmental stages of honey bees and also transmits viral pathogens including deformed wing virus. As a result, it causes weakened bees, cellular disorders and damage, wing deformities, reduced body size, malformed and atrophied legs, incomplete development of the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands, reduced lifespan, decreased immune capacity, and colony collapse. Ultimately, it causes enormous economic losses to the global beekeeping industry including in Iran every year. In recent years, the application of chemical pesticides for control of this mite has led to the occurrence of mite resistance and contamination of hive products. Therefore, the use of safe alternative methods is recommended to protect bee health and colony products. Honey bees grooming behavior is the primary natural defense against Varroa mite, American foul brood and chalk brood disease and are controlled by genetic and environmental factors. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the grooming behavior of the honey bee population in Kurdistan province against the Varroa mite and its effect on colony performance traits, including the adult bee population, brood population, and honey production.
Material and Methods: The present study was conducted on the honey bee population of Kurdistan province during 2023 to 2025. This study was carried out on 120 honey bee colonies infested with Varroa mites in four cities of Kurdistan province (Saqqez, Kamyaran, Marivan, and Sanandaj) based on a two-factor completely randomized design. In this study, two apiaries were randomly selected from each county, and 15 colonies were selected and numbered from each apiary. In this study, apiaries with more than 300 colonies were selected, and colonies with infestation levels above 10% were selected from each apiary. The experimental colonies in the apiaries and cities under study were not treated with any acaricides or other Varroa mite control methods for nine months prior to the experiment. In the first year of the study, the experimental colonies were standardized in terms of queen age, population size (adult bees and brood), and honey reserves according to the guidelines of Delaplane et al. (2013). In this study, grooming behavior, population (brood and adults), and honey production traits of the experimental colonies were evaluated.
Results and discussion: The results of covariance analysis showed that the effect of city on all studied traits and apiary within each city on adult’s bee population trait was significant (p<0.01). The results of mean comparison of grooming behavior showed that the highest mean grooming behavior was observed in honey bee colonies from Saqqez city (99.28 mites), and the lowest mean of this behavior was observed in colonies from Sanandaj city (41.24 mites). The results of relative grooming behavior showed that honey bees from Saqqez city exhibited the highest relative grooming behavior (0.95). However, they did not differ significantly from the bees of Kamyaran (0.93) and Marivan (0.91) cities, whereas they showed a significant difference from the bees of Sanandaj (0.84) (p<0.01). The highest and lowest mean of brood population were observed in honey bee colonies from Sanandaj (2.75 frames) and Saqqez (1.8 frames) cities, respectively. The highest and lowest mean of adult’s bee populations were observed in honey bee colonies from Sanandaj (15.71 frames) and Saqqez (11.37 frames) cities, respectively. Also, the highest mean honey production triat was recorded in honey bee colonies from Sanandaj city (12.21 kg), and the lowest mean of this triat was recorded in colonies from Saqqez city (8.2 kg).
Conclusion: Our finding demonstrated that grooming behavior, as one of the most important defensive mechanisms of honey bees against diseases and pests including the Varroa mite, is expressed in the native honey bee population of Kurdistan province. Furthermore, the level of expression of this behavior varied among the studied honey bee colonies. The results showed that although an increase in grooming behavior can enhance colony resistance against the Varroa mite, it may be associated with a relative reduction in productive performance. This issue is of particular importance in honey bee breeding programs, as selection solely for mite resistance may negatively affect the productive efficiency of the colony. Therefore, breeding strategies should be designed in a way that strengthens the bees’ defensive capacity while maintaining productive performance at an optimal level. In this regard, the use of balanced selection methods, along with consideration of the climatic and ecological conditions of each region, can help simultaneously improve resistance to the Varroa mite and enhance performance traits in native populations. Based on the findings of this study, it can be inferred that honey bee colonies in Kurdistan province are capable of defending themselves against Varroa mites through the expression of grooming behavior. Furthermore, by the implementation of breeding programs, the level of this behavior in the colonies of this province can be improved alongside productive traits.
کلیدواژهها English
