Monitor Gut Pathogens OfHoney Bees

摘要

Monitoring the health of honey bee, Apis mellifera L., colonies is very important to prevent prevalence of diseases, and to protect the colonies from sudden collapse. External parasites of honey bees can be identified simply without killing the bees,while the identification of gut pathogens requires the dissection of the bee sample, mostly workers and drones and not queens. Most studies avoid investigating queens, because one queen exists in a normal bee colony. A simple and non-destructive method to monitor gut pathogens in honey bees is described using simple laboratory tools. The presented method can be used to monitor gut pathogens of bees without killing them.