Studies of ascosphaera apis strains isolated from commercial poles of different spanish provinces and their enzymatic production capacity

Abstract

Ascosphaera apis is a pathogenic fungus of Apis mellifera bees larvae that causes the disease-chalkbrood, which causes serious damage to hives, causing serious economic losses. The disease is usually recurrent during the rainy season and low temperatures, but there are also other factors that predispose the colony to become ill, such as lack of protein reserves, poor ventilation inside the hive and weak hives, especially in those where there is not an adequate use of antimicrobials., In this work six strains of the commercial pollen fungus were isolated from four Spanish provinces, which were conserved for 48 months, they were identified genetically using the ITS (internal transcription space) regions coding for rRNA 5.8S. In order to verify its viability, it was performed an in vitro enzymatic screening of the secretion capacity of products and proteases in conventional media, all strains were found to be viable at 30°C and under microaerophilic conditions, it was also shown that the strains are related phylogenetically, far from other countries, which would be showing that the spores are transported among Spanish provinces. This work brings an approximation to the viability of A. apis fungus spores in commercial pollens, to extend sanitary measures and to control the pollen used in the feeding of beehives when it is scarce.