Home sick: impacts of migratory beekeeping on honey bee (Apis mellifera) pests, pathogens, and colony size.

ABSTRACT: Honey bees are important pollinators of agricultural crops and the dramatic losses of honey bee colonies have risen to a level of international concern. Potential contributors to such losses include pesticide exposure, lack of floral resources and parasites and pathogens. The damaging effects of all of these may be exacerbated by apicultural practices. To meet the pollination demand of US crops, bees are transported to areas of high pollination demand throughout the year. Compared to stationary colonies, risk of parasitism and infectious disease may be greater for migratory bees than those that remain in a single location, although this has not been experimentally established. Here, we conducted a manipulative experiment to test whether viral pathogen and parasite loads increase as a resul

SUBMITTER: Alger SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6216951 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature