Mondet, Fanny and Parejo, Melanie and Meixner, Marina D. and Costa, Cecilia and Kryger, Per and Andonov, Sreten and Servin, Bertrand and Basso, Benjamin and Bienkowska, Malgorzata and Bigio, Gianluigi and Căuia, Eliza and Cebotari, Valentina and Dahle, Bjørn and Drazic, Marica Maja and Hatjina, Fani and Kovačić, Marin and Kretavicius, Justinas and Lima, Ana S. and Panasiuk, Beata and Pinto, M. Alice and Uzunov, Aleksandar and Wilde, Jerzy and Büchler, Ralph
(2020).
Evaluation of Suppressed Mite Reproduction (SMR) Reveals Potential for Varroa Resistance in European Honey Bees (Apis melliferaL.).
Insects. 11
, 595
[Research article]
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Abstract
Simple Summary The miteVarroa destructorrepresents a great threat to honey bees and the beekeeping industry. The opportunity to select and breed honey bees that are naturally able to fight the mite stands a sustainable solution. This can be achieved by evaluation of the failure of mite reproduction (SMR, suppressed mite reproduction). We conducted a large European experiment to assess the SMR trait in different populations of honey bees spread over 13 different countries, and representing different honey bee populations. The first goal was to standardize and validate the SMR evaluation method, and then to compare the SMR trait between the different populations. Our results indicate that it is necessary to examine at least 35 brood cells infested by a single mite to reliably estimate the SMR score of any given colony. Several colonies from our dataset display high SMR scores, indicating that this trait is present within the European honey bee populations. No major differences could be identified between countries for a given population, or between populations in different countries. This study shows the potential to increase selection efforts to breedV. destructorhoney bee resistant populations. In the fight against theVarroa destructormite, selective breeding of honey bee (Apis melliferaL.) populations that are resistant to the parasitic mite stands as a sustainable solution. Selection initiatives indicate that using the suppressed mite reproduction (SMR) trait as a selection criterion is a suitable tool to breed such resistant bee populations. We conducted a large European experiment to evaluate the SMR trait in different populations of honey bees spread over 13 different countries, and representing different honey bee genotypes with their local mite parasites. The first goal was to standardize and validate the SMR evaluation method, and then to compare the SMR trait between the different populations. Simulation results indicate that it is necessary to examine at least 35 single-infested cells to reliably estimate the SMR score of any given colony. Several colonies from our dataset display high SMR scores indicating that this trait is present within the European honey bee populations. The trait is highly variable between colonies and some countries, but no major differences could be identified between countries for a given genotype, or between genotypes in different countries. This study shows the potential to increase selective breeding efforts ofV. destructorresistant populations.
Authors/Creators: | Mondet, Fanny and Parejo, Melanie and Meixner, Marina D. and Costa, Cecilia and Kryger, Per and Andonov, Sreten and Servin, Bertrand and Basso, Benjamin and Bienkowska, Malgorzata and Bigio, Gianluigi and Căuia, Eliza and Cebotari, Valentina and Dahle, Bjørn and Drazic, Marica Maja and Hatjina, Fani and Kovačić, Marin and Kretavicius, Justinas and Lima, Ana S. and Panasiuk, Beata and Pinto, M. Alice and Uzunov, Aleksandar and Wilde, Jerzy and Büchler, Ralph | ||||||
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Title: | Evaluation of Suppressed Mite Reproduction (SMR) Reveals Potential for Varroa Resistance in European Honey Bees (Apis melliferaL.) | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Insects | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 11 | ||||||
Article number: | 595 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 16 | ||||||
Publisher: | MDPI | ||||||
ISSN: | 2075-4450 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 402 Animal and Dairy Science > Animal and Dairy Science. (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Microbiology (Microbiology in the medical area to be 30109) | ||||||
Keywords: | varroa, honey bee, SMR (suppressed mite reproduction), breeding, selection, resistance | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-108697 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-108697 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 25257 | ||||||
Faculty: | VH - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science | ||||||
Department: | (VH) > Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 06 Sep 2021 11:25 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 06 Sep 2021 11:31 |
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