Honey bee colony losses in Latin America over the last seven years

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

Atenas

Conferencia; 13th International COLOSS Conference; 2017

COLOSS

Over the past decade, several countries have carried out monitoring of managed honey bee colonies suggesting high losses all over the world. Although Latin America plays a major role in the global honey supply, estimates of honey bee colony losses are lacking. Using the FAO dataset we reveal a worrying situation for apiculture in Latin America, where the respective contribution to both global beehive numbers and honey exports are declining. Moreover, we present a synthesis of unpublished data of colony losses over the last seven years, showing estimates of high loss rates in various Latin-American countries. However, these estimates are based on very low sample sizes, and there is high variability in methods across initiatives preventing proper comparisons. These results suggest the need to adapt, centralize and standardize methods across countries in Latin America, a main objective of the ?colony losses? working group at the Latin-American Bee Research Association, SOLATINA,