Is Acarapis woodi mite currently infesting Apis mellifera colonies in Argentina?

SZAWARSKI, NICOLÁS; QUINTANA, SILVINA; LEVY, EUGENIA; MARTÍN PABLO PORRINI; BRASESCO,CONSTANZA; NEGRI, PEDRO; SARLO, GABRIEL; MARTÍN JAVIER EGUARAS; MATÍAS D. MAGGI

JOURNAL OF APICULTURAL RESEARCH

INT BEE RESEARCH ASSOC

Año: 2017

0021-8839

The honey bee tracheal mite Acarapis woodi is an internal obligate parasite of the respiratory system of adult honey bees Apis mellifera, which may be one ofthe factors causing the loss of bee colonies and the decrease in the beekeepingindustry. In Argentina, the last prevalence study of A. woodi was in 1998, and therefore there is no current data on theprevalence and impact of the mite in colonies of Apis mellifera in this country. For this reason that the objectiveof this study was to determine the prevalence of A.woodi in honey bee colonies of apiaries belonging to differentgeographic regions of Argentina (Northwest, Chaco, Mesopotamic, Pampean andPatagonic) using two different methods of diagnosis. One method was thetraditional upon microscopy, which is based on direct visualization of A.woodi in the prothoracic tracheas ofbees, and the other technique by molecular analysis using real-time PCR withspecific primers to amplify CO1 gene of A.woodi. To perform the analysis of prevalence, five colonies were sampled byapiary. From each colony a random sampling of a total of 60 adult worker bees wasdone. These were collected during winter, because during this season,populations of A. woodi are moreabundant in bee colonies. The results were negative for both methods of diagnosis, withprevalence equal to 0%. Considering that in recentyears it has reported an increased mortality in bee colonies in Argentina, wenote that acarapisosis is not currently impacting on the disappearance of A. mellifera colonies in Argentina.