Prevalence and Epizootical Aspects of Varroasis in Golestan Province, Northern Iran

BACKGROUND: The Varroa destructor mite is considered as a major pest of honey bees Apis mellifera. The rapid spread of Varroa mites among bee colonies may be due to several factors, including drifting of infested bees, movement of bee swarms, and robbing of weakened colonies. Disease spread and predisposing the infested bees to other diseases lead to high economic losses in beekeeping industries. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of and evaluate some managing factors in Golestan Province in Iran in 2008. METHODS: According to the records of Agricultural Research Center, 80 infested beekeeping centers identified and a questionnaire consists of managing factors for each center has been designed. All data were recorded and analyzed by SPSS software to calculate χ(2) test. RESULTS: Among 80 apiculture centers, 72 centers (92%) were infested to Varroa and hive density of 90.6% of the centers was 31–60 hives in one center (P= 0.324). All of the apiculture centers had more than 6 km distance to nearest beekeeping center (P= 0.687). Amongst bee keepers 15(93.8%) had low literacy level (P= 0.479) and 26(89.7%) had 5–10 years experience in beekeeping (P= 0.953). CONCLUSION: We can conclude that because of the high prevalence of the disease, the usual methods of prevention are not effective. This high prevalence emphasizes that we are very far from a solution for Varroa infestation and extra researches on mite biology, tolerance breeding, and Varroa treatment is immediately required.