Trends in beekeeping and honey bee colony losses in Latin America

REQUIER, F; ANTÚNEZ K.; MORALES, C; ALDEA SÁNCHEZ, P; CASTILHOS, D; GARRIDO, PM; GIACOBINO, A; REYNALDI, FJ; ROSSO LONDOÑO, JM; SANTOS, E; GARIBALDI, LA

JOURNAL OF APICULTURAL RESEARCH

INT BEE RESEARCH ASSOC

Año: 2018

0021-8839

Over the past decade, several countries have carriedout monitoring programs of managed honey bee colonies, which suggest beekeepingdifficulties with high colony loss rates all over the world. Although LatinAmerica plays a major role in the global honey supply, trends in beekeepingactivities and honey bee colony losses are lacking. Using the FAO dataset and asynthesis of unpublished data of colony losses survey carried out over the lastseven years, we reveal a worrying situation of the beekeeping in this region.The Latin-American trends in honey production and beehive numbers are driftingof the global pattern, and several high colony loss rates were registered inthis region. These results revel the presence of beekeeping difficulties inLatin America; however, the variability in methods of colony loss survey acrossinitiatives prevent proper conclusion on loss rates. Efforts are needed toadapt, centralize and standardize methods to monitor honeybee health and colonylosses across countries in Latin America, the main objective of the ?colonylosses? working group at the Latin-American Bee Research Association, SOLATINA,a large-scale platform created in 2017 to coordinate bee research programs inLatin America.