•  
  •  
 

THE OCCURRENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF MELISSOCOCCUS PLUTONIUS (WHITE, 1912 AND NOSEMA CERANEA (FRIES, ET AL. 1996) IN HONEY BEES APIS MELLIFERA (LINNAEUS, 1758) FROM APIARIES IN SOUTH EAST GEORGIA.

Abstract

Honey bees, or Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758), are important to our world. They are pollinators, and contribute important nutritional and commercial products, such as honey and wax. But these hard-working insects are being threatened and are facing a huge decline in numbers in recent years due to a wide range of pathogens. Two well-known pathogens are gram-positive bacteria Melissococcus plutonius (White, 1912) which causes the condition known as European Foulbrood, and the other is a parasite known as Nosema ceranae (Fries, et al. 1996), which makes its home in the midgut of the honey bee and competes for resources. This study investigated the occurrence and distribution of these two pathogens. Ten hives were tested, five of which displayed clinical symptoms of European Foulbrood, and five that did not. Two different tests were performed to identify the presence of M. plutonius and N. ceranae. The first test involved testing honey bee brood by way of Lateral Flow Devices - this indicated a presence or absence of M. plutonius within the colony. The second test was a spore count on samples of bees from each hive; 50 bees were crushed and mixed in distilled water and then a wet smear slide was inspected under a microscope. The results of these tests showed that hardly any hives testing positive for European Foulbrood also had a presence of spores. Three hives that had EFB died before the winter tests, and two hives from the seemingly healthy hives died; only one had shown signs of N. ceranae. In the winter tests, there was only EFB or N. ceranae in one single hive, thus a low occurrence of N. ceranae spores were seen.

Acknowledgements

Division of Math & Natural Sciences, BPC

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS