Varroatosis is a contagious parasitic disease of the brood and all castes of mature bees caused by Varroa destructor mites. The presence of the parasite exerts a very negative impact on the bee colony. The objective of the investigations was to assess the effect of the degree of infestation of bee families during the autumn period on spring queen brooding evaluated by the measurement of brood area in these families. The total of 15 honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies of Carnica breed was selected for investigations. They were divided into three groups of varying degrees of family infestation on the basis of the number of individuals of V. destructor which fell onto the bottom floor following the third fumigation of families with Apiwarol. In spring of the following year, four pictures of frames with capped brood were taken at three-week intervals using a digital camera. Next, using a computer digital image analysis program Microscan-Lucia, the outline of cells with sealed brood visible on the computer screen was made automatically allowing the determination of the sealed brood area. The obtained results were subjected to statistical analysis using for this purpose single-factorial analysis of variance, whereas the Student t-test was applied to compare differences. The performed calculations revealed absence of significant differences in the brood area in bee families affected to a different degree by varroatosis at different dates of measurements which indicated that the extent of infestation of bee families with the V. destructor parasite during the autumn period failed to affect the spring brooding of bee queens.
Full text available in English in Adobe Acrobat format:https://www.npt.up-poznan.net/pub/art_4_9.pdf
| MLA | Fliszkiewicz, Monika, and Michał Walachowski. "Spring brooding of queen bees in families with varying infestation with the Varroa destructor parasite during autumn period." Nauka Przyr. Technol. 4.1 (2010): #9. |
| APA | Monika Fliszkiewicz, Michał Walachowski (2010). Spring brooding of queen bees in families with varying infestation with the Varroa destructor parasite during autumn period. Nauka Przyr. Technol. 4 (1), #9 |
| ISO 690 | FLISZKIEWICZ, Monika, WALACHOWSKI, Michał. Spring brooding of queen bees in families with varying infestation with the Varroa destructor parasite during autumn period. Nauka Przyr. Technol., 2010, 4.1: #9. |
Monika Fliszkiewicz
Instytut Zoologii
Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy w Poznaniu
ul. Wojska Polskiego 71 C
60-625 Poznań
Poland
e-mail: monef@up.poznan.pl