A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland, in the United States, points out details about mite infection in bees. Scientists claim that even a small amount can trigger many infections. The main consequence would be the transmission of the deformed wing virus among insects. Understand!
mites in bees
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In a recent article published in the Scientific Journal Plos Pathogens, we saw some details about how the investigation of mite infection in bees was carried out. The main objective of the study was to investigate the role of the Varroa mite, which is responsible for causing collapses in bee colonies.
For this, they used fluorescent microspheres in order to test whether Varroa fed on adult bees. They saw that the mite could transfer this microsphere to the bees through food. Finally, it was possible to see that a single mite was able to spread pathogens to several insects through food.
The study also shows how Varroa can switch hosts at an alarming rate, which can affect entire bee colonies. The conclusion is that the highly contaminated mites, which passed from host to host many times, were largely responsible for the high mortality rates.
Conclusions
Mites with a higher level of host transfer were responsible for three times as many infections as those with a low level. According to the authors, the main factor of Contamination of a hive would be food. A small amount of mites would be enough to contaminate an entire community of bees.
Even so, scientists say that further studies are needed before drawing more specific conclusions, so they will continue with an investigation into how Varroa acts on bees and what are the main consequences of this for the ecosystem.
In future studies, the objective will be to better understand what makes the mites change hosts.
