Читать книгу Honey Bee Medicine for the Veterinary Practitioner - Группа авторов - Страница 38

Some veterinarians with experience in honey bee disease and/or epidemiology have campaigned against the emergence of Treatment‐Free Beekeeping or Natural Beekeeping because of the risk of spreading disease through the collapse of colonies. Perhaps most alarming is the phenomenon of “mite bomb” colonies (ones collapsing from high mite loads) that spread mites and virulent strains of the Deformed Wing Virus to neighboring colonies (Martin et al. 2012). When Varroa mites reached Hawaii, Martin and colleagues observed a drastic increase in the prevalence of DWV from 10% to 100% (the percentage of honey bee colonies infected with DWV virus), a millionfold increase in DWV viral copies in infected bees, and a reduction in DWV diversity to a single highly contagious strain. A collapse of 274 of 419 managed colonies on Oahu Island followed. The beekeeper should either treat Varroa‐infested colonies once a critical mite infestation level is reached (typically c. three mites per hundred bees sampled) or cull (euthanize) highly infested colonies before they can spread their mites to neighboring colonies or surrounding apiaries.