Varroa destructor in Siciliasituazione attuale e prospettive

Abstract

In Sicily, beekeeping is becoming increasingly important as an economic activity in the agriculture and livestock sectors. The honey bee or Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758, is one of the most important pollinators worldwide, since agricultural crops depend on the pollination of these insects. However, during the last decades numerous losses of hives have been documented in many countries and therefore, the loss of part of their diversity would endanger not only their own survival, but also the survival of a large number of botanical species. Monitoring and surveillance studies have proven to be useful tools to address the problem of colony losses. Recently, different studies have demonstrated the importance in the loss of hives of the interaction between Varroa mites (Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman, 2000) and the viruses they transmit. Varroasis is a parasite that has been a health problem for more than twenty years since its appearance in Italy, it is undoubtedly a pathology that must be kept under control. Therefore, gathering and improving information on the health status of honey bees related to varroasis at local and national levels seems to be fundamental to better understand the causes of the phenomenon of honey bee decline. Beekeeping in the Italian islands has an ancient origin, as a result, Italian island honeybee populations incorporate various genetic traits from African (A lineage) and/or Middle Eastern (O lineage) evolutionary lines. In particular, Sicily is inhabited by Apis mellifera siciliana Dalla Torre, 1896, however, in the early 20th century, Sicilian beekeepers occasionally began to import other bee breeds from the Italian peninsula that hybridize with Sicilian bee populations. The conservation of native bee subspecies is of great importance, not only for economic reasons, but also from a global biodiversity conservation perspective. In this sense, the study and monitoring of V. destructor infestation is an important step to contribute to the conservation of native Sicilian honey bees. In this context arises the present doctoral thesis, which consists of two parts. The first part "Varroa destructor in Sicily: current situation and perspectives" whose general objective is to study the current status of beekeeping and varroasis in Sicily. For this purpose, a study based on surveys has been carried out to learn about beekeeping management practices carried out by Sicilian beekeepers to control V. destructor parasitation. Among the specific objectives are: i) to estimate the prevalence of Varroa mite, and ii) to analyze the correlation between management practices and the prevalence of Varroa. The second part of the thesis is the design of a didactic project "L'ape entra in classe...niente paura...impariamo ad allevarla" to carry out the transfer of the acquired knowledge and to promote the good beekeeping practices and the conservation of the native bee populations of Sicily. The specific objectives of this second part are i) to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit of young people through training, learning and carrying out an activity such as beekeeping, ii) to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity conservation, and iii) to carry out environmental education activities related to the fundamental importance of bees as universal bio-indicators and for the survival of many botanical species.