Importance of microscopic testing of honey and pollen samples in the prophylaxis of major bacterial diseases in apis mellifera carpathica bees

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to monitor the presence of bacilli in the honey and pollen samples in correlation to the positive diagnosis of these major bacterial diseases in bees. The study took 3 years, and approximately 156 samples of honey and bee bread from reserve honeycombs and 156 live bee intestine samples were processed. To identify the bacilli in honey, bee bread (pollen) reserve and live bees intestine , we used our own method, and the confirmation of their presence was done through methodology OIE/2008. Of the total tested samples, the bacilli were found present in 63 samples from reserve honeycombs and in 67 samples from live bees’ intestine. The bee colonies that did not test bacilli in the samples examined for the duration of the monitoring, did not present a disease episode and did not register mortality of pathologic nature. The mortality registered in the apiaries under study throughout the 3 year-period was 30-100 % for the apiares from which samples testing positive for bacilli had been received. The study confirms that a correlation exists between the presence of bacilli in samples of honey and bee bread from reserve honeycombs, and their presence in adult bees’ intestine. The microscopic testing of honey and pollen samples, as well as of bee intestine, may constitute an important prophylactic method in the management of major bacterial diseases in bees (American and European foulbrood).