ANAYSIS OF VOLATILE COMPOUND PROFILES INVOLVED IN Apis Mellifera HYGIENIC BEHAVIOR TOWARDS Varroa destructor

LIENDO MC; FERNANDEZ PC; MUNTAABSKI I; RUSSO R; PALACIO MA; FIGINI E; CLADERA JL; LANZAVECCHIA SB; SCANNAPIECO AC

Congreso; Apimondia 2015; 2015

Varroa destructor constitutes one of the main problems facing the beekeeping. Apis mellifera displays a social health mechanism against brood diseases that consists in detect, uncap and remove dead or diseased brood from the hive (hygienic behavior). Previous studies showed that olfactory cues could be involved in the detection of diseased brood by worker bees. The aim of this work was to study the removal behavior of workers towards V. destructor infested-brood at different times, and to explore the volatile compounds associated. Newly-capped bee brood was artificially infested with one mite, and at different post- infestation times (60 h, 5 and 10 days) the number of infested brood removed were recorded. Non-infested brood cells were simultaneously analyzed as a control assay. In parallel, 25 control and infested honeybee larvae/pupae of each treatment were removed from the brood cells and their volatile compounds were analyzed by GC-MS. The percentages of infested brood removed were significantly higher for 5 and 10 days compared to 60h treatment. Differences between the chemical profiles obtained from infested vs control brood were found, particularly for 5 and 10 days treatments. We also detected differences in chemical profiles along infestation time. Our behavioral and eco-chemistry study evidenced that the olfactory cues are stronger as progressing the V. destructor reproductive cycle. These results will contribute with information towards a better understanding of the social mechanism displayed by worker bees against the mite, useful to honeybee breeding programs for the selection of Varroa-tolerant colonies.