Crowding honeybee colonies in apiaries can increase their vulnerability to the deadly ectoparasite Varroa destructor
Crowding honeybee colonies in apiaries can increase their vulnerability to the deadly ectoparasite Varroa destructor
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养蜂场中拥挤的蜂群会增加它们对致命的外寄生虫瓦螨的脆弱性
作者：
T. Seeley;Michael L. Smith
当人类从狩猎分散在野外的蜜蜂群体转变为将它们养在蜂箱中拥挤的蜂箱中时，他们可能大大增加了蜂群之间的疾病传播。研究了集群菌落的影响。两组12个菌落，蜂箱拥挤或分散，建立在一个共同的环境，并留下未经处理的螨。无人机在拥挤的群体中发生了许多归航错误，但在分散的群体中却没有。在初夏，在这两个群体中，没有群集的殖民地发展高螨计数，但群集的殖民地保持低螨计数。在夏末，在拥挤的群体中，而不是在分散的群体中，群集的菌落也发展出高螨计数。所有在夏末螨计数高的菌落在冬季死亡，所有在夏末螨计数低的菌落在冬季存活。显然，蜂群可以减少蜂群的螨负荷，但当蜂群拥挤在养蜂场时，这种螨负荷的减少被抹去，因为螨通过漂流和抢劫传播。
When humans switched from hunting honeybee colonies living scattered in the wild to keeping them in hives crowded in apiaries, they may have greatly increased disease transmission between colonies. The effects of clustering colonies were studied. Two groups of 12 colonies, with hives crowded or dispersed, were established in a common environment and left untreated for mites. Drones made many homing errors in the crowded group, but not in the dispersed group. In early summer, in both groups, the colonies that did not swarm developed high mite counts, but the colonies that swarmed maintained low mite counts. In late summer, in the crowded group but not in the dispersed group, the colonies that swarmed also developed high mite counts. All colonies with high mite counts in late summer died over winter; all colonies with low mite counts in late summer survived over winter. Evidently, swarming can reduce a colony’s mite load, but when colonies are crowded in apiaries, this mite-load reduction is erased as mites are spread through drifting and robbing.