Dopady Varroa destructor na zdraví a imunitní systém trubců včely medonosné
| Title in English | Impacts of Varroa destructor on the health and immune system of drone honey bees |
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Varroa destructor is an ectoparasitic mite that feeds on the fat body of bees. Previously, this mite was found only in South-East Asia, where it parasitised the eastern honey bee (Apis cerana), but in the 1970s it was also introduced into Europe. As European honey bee populations (Apis mellifera) are not the original hosts of the mite, they are not able to cope with the parasitisation that well, leading to massive bee mortalities and the collapse of entire colonies. Many recent studies have focused on describing physiological and immune changes in parasitized workers. However, for drones, this information is lacking. Yet their good health is crucial for the colony as they pass on their genetic information to the next generation. In addition, drones are targeted and attacked by this mite about ten times more often than workers, even though they are only present in the colony for a limited period of time. The aim of our study is to investigate the impact of parasitization on the overall immunocompetence of drones. This work will first compare healthy drones and workers, as it is hypothesized that the half the number of chromosomes that drones have compared to workers may reduce their ability to cope with infection. Subsequently, samples of drones from two colonies - a healthy colony and a heavily infested colony - will be collected and compared. Finally, the measured data for infected drones will be compared with the existing data for infected workers. The parameters to be measured and compared will be, for example, the total antimicrobial activity in the haemolymph samples or the level of essential nutrients, i.e. carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, since it was found, for example, that the Varroa infestation reduced the total lipid concentration in the workers by half. Our findings will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanism by which the Varroa reduces bee defences, which is essential for the future development of effective drugs. The research is supported by National Agency for Agricultural Research project QL24010241. |
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