Hygienic behavior and level of infestation with Varroa destructor of Apis mellifera in the central zone of Ecuador

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the hygienic behavior (CH) and its relation to infestation rates (TIA) by Varroa destructor of adult bees (Apis mellifera); a total of 85 colonies were sampled during the months of April and May of 2017. Each hive was determined the hygienic behavior through the perforated technique; Samples were collected for the detection of varroa by the De Jong method. The results indicate that for Tungurahua and Chimborazo apiaries showed significant differences (P£0.05), with mean values ??of 80.3% and 73.5% and a TIA of 5.2% and 3.13% without significance to Mann-Whitney U. The colonies were classified on the basis of the CH obtaining three groups: high CH (15 hives), intermediate CH (65 hives) and low CH (5 hives), it was verified that the varroa mite is present throughout the study area, with a prevalence of 86% of hives (73/85). Highly significant negative correlations were found between CH and the number of mites in the porethic stage (r = -0.547), revealing that those hives with a higher CH, presented lower parasitic loads. Differences in the hygienic behavior of the apiaries of the province of Tungurahua and Chimborazo were found, while average infestation rates were diagnosed for these provinces, verifying that the varroa mite is present in the area