Comportamento higiênico e índice de infestação do varroa destructor nas abelhas africanizadas no município de Santa Teresinha-Ba

Abstract

The rate of Varroa destructor mite infestation is an important issue in beekeeping, since this parasite can cause serious damage to Africanized bee colonies. The hygienic behavior of bees is an important feature that can help control Varroa infestation, since hygienic bees are able to detect and remove pupae infested by the mite. The present work aimed to study the infestation rate of Varroa destructor and the hygienic behavior of Africanized bees in the caatinga and Atlantic forest biomes in the municipality of Santa Teresinha, Bahia. The observations were made in 6 apiaries in the municipality of Santa Teresinha-BA, and 3 of these apiaries are located in an environment of the Atlantic forest and the other 3 in an environment of caatinga, in each apiary 5 random hives were chosen and in these hives they were collected around 100 to 300 bees to do the V.destructor infestation test. The hygienic behavior test was conducted in the same hives mentioned above. It was found that all apiaries have the presence of V. destructor, and in the Atlantic Forest biome the infestation levels were higher than in the caatinga biome, with a hive with 7.2% of infestation, however only one hive presented this higher index. In short, the infestation rates were considered low, not bringing any risk to the bees. The hygienic behavior was considered high in most of the hives, the apiaries located in the Atlantic Forest biome had hives with hygienic behavior greater in their entirety than the hives located in the caatinga biome, where hives with hygienic behavior below 60% were found. In the final balance, it was concluded that almost all swarms studied showed good hygienic behavior, so these swarms are good for genetic improvement.