Author(s):
Pires, Sância 
; Murilhas, António ; Russo, Paulo ; Valério, Maria ; Gonçalves, Manuel
Date: 2013
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/9178
Origin: Biblioteca Digital do IPB
Subject(s): Beekeeping; Bee pathology; Portugal
Description
Since winter 2006, extensive honey bee colony losses with distinctive features were first reported in
the USA ( ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’, CCD). Global research over the past few years attempting to pin
point CCD’s most likely causes, recurrently pointed out that no single factor is universally responsible
for this disorder. Nevertheless, stressors e.g. the Varroa mite, some ‘new generation’ pesticides, an
ever expanding ‘pathosphere’ affecting European Apis mellifera strains (just to name a few) and their
multiple interactions with other long ongoing stress sources clearly compromise the multi‐level
immune defense of honey bees, disrupting their social system and leading colonies to collapse. In
Spain, various reports have suggested that Nosema ceranae is the main culprit regarding the
abnormally high colony mortality levels reported. In Portugal, no reliable information existed (other
than a few discrete anecdotal reports) on honey bee colony mortality levels across the beekeeping
regions of the country, nor their ‘perceived’ causes. As a result, we carried out this work focusing on
narrowing this knowledge gap by getting an overview of our beekeepers opinions. This study appears
in the context of a project submitted by FNAP Measure 6A National Beekeeping Program (under EU
Regulations No. 917/2004, No. 797/2004 and No. 1234/2007), in partnership with research institutions
of the authors, under coordination of Prof. Sância Pires.
