Evaluación del comportamiento higiénico de Apis mellifera L. en relación al nivel de infestación de varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman

Abstract

The beekeeping in Chile has been especially important for the small and medium agriculture due to the several products that can be obtained from the explotation. One of the major problems is the incidence of diseases and parasites, being the acarus ectoparasite Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman one of the main pathologies because of its difficult control since it's reproduced in brood capped cells, decreasing the population of the colony and in strong infestations making them disappear completely; also by using chemical products for its control, which are not used correctly, producing resistance and leaving residues in the bee products. In order to change this situation it is necessary to find new control alternatives such as genetic resistance through hygienic behavior. The hygienic behavior related to the infestation level of Varroa destructor is analyzed in this work. Twenty one honeybee colonies were involved in this study, which were evaluated from October to December 2005. The percentage of hygienic behavior of each colony was determined through the pin-killed test. Samples to carry out the diagnoses of varroa were also taken. The results showed a low and heterogeneous level of hygienic behavior, where the values fluctuated in the colonies in average from 20% to 80% (2 colonies). The non-existence of correlation was also shown. The evaluated parameters showed an infestation average of 4.5% in adult bee; 7% in worker brood and 31% in drone brood.