European Foulbrood in stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini) in Brazil: Old disease, renewed threat.

Stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini) are a group of bees with vestigial stings showing a high level of social organization. They are important pollinators in tropical and subtropical regions, and, in the last decades, stingless beekeeping has increased rapidly in Brazil. Bee-collected pollen and honey of Apis mellifera can be an important source of disease when used as supplements to feed stingless bee colonies, a common and increasing practice adopted by stingless beekeepers. Here, we aimed to investigate the presence of pathogens commonly found in honey bees in diseased colonies of Melipona species in Espírito Santo and São Paulo States, Southeast Brazil. We detected, for the first time, the bacterium Melissococcus plutonius and symptoms of European foulbrood in Melipona spp., associated with brood death and colony losses in some cases. In addition, we tested for the presence of the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae and the fungus Aschosphaera apis, as well as the six more common honey bee viruses in Brazil (BQCV, ABPV, DWV, KBV, IAPV, CBPV) and the microsporidia Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. However, only one sample of brood was infected with N. ceranae and all other pathogens, with the exception of Melissococcus plutonius, were absent in the analyzed brood. Lastly, we looked for toxic pollen in all food fed to diseased colonies, but none was present.

Spores of Paenibacillus larvae, Ascosphaera apis, Nosema ceranae and Nosema apis in bee products supervised by the Brazilian Federal Inspection Service

ABSTRACT Due to their ecological and economic importance, honey bees have attracted much scientific attention, which has intensified due to the recent population decline of these insects in the several parts of the world. Among the factors related to these patterns, infection by pathogens are the most relevant, mainly because of the easy dissemination of these microorganisms. Although no zoonotic diseases are associated with these insects, the presence of infectious agents in bee products should still be considered because they play a role as disease dispersers, increasing the risk to animal health. Because of the possibility of dispersion of pathogens via bee products, this work aimed to identify the presence of spores of the pathogens Paenibacillus larvae, Ascosphaera apis and Nosema spp. in samples of honey, pollen and royal jelly that are registered with Brazil's Federal Inspection Service (S.I.F.) and commercially available in the state of São Paulo. Of the 41 samples of bee products analyzed, only one showed no contamination by any of these pathogens. N. ceranae and P. larvae had the highest prevalence considering all the samples analyzed (present in 87.80% and 85.37% of the total, respectively), with N. apis present in 26.83% and A. apis present in 73.17% of the samples. These results provide support for the formulation of government regulations for sanitary control of exotic diseases by preventing dispersion of pathogens, including through illegal importation, since local and international trade and the transfer of colonies between regions play important roles in the dispersion of these microorganisms.

Volatile compounds and palynological analysis from pollen pots of stingless bees from the mid-north region of Brazil

ABSTRACT Samburá is the botanical pollen nectar agglutinated by salivary secretions of bees. Stingless bee pollen samples were collected in three periods of the year in Monsenhor Gil town, PI, Brazil, for extraction of volatile constituents by different techniques, analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and the palynological analysis used to identify the dominant pollen. Among the volatile compounds identified, kaur-16-ene, methyl and ethyl hexadecanoate, methyl linoleate and heneicosane were identified more frequently in the studied parameters: period of sample collection and extraction techniques used. The palynological analysis identified the pollen of Mimosa caesalpiniifolia Benth. as the dominant pollen in all samples studied.