Description of Parasitic Infections in Honeybees Apis sp in the Middle Euphrates Region of Iraq

Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate the parasitic infections of honeybees, 300 adult honey bee collected from apiaries in the Middle Euphrates region (province of AL-Diwaniyah, AL-Najaf, Babylon, Karbala), there were three strains of honeybees in that area included, Apis mellifera syriaca, Apis mellifera syriaca carnica, Apis melliferasyriaca ligustica, all these strains registered were infected with both Parasites Varroa. destructor, Nosema apis where the proportion of total infection was 49.44%, a strain was less parasitic infection Apis melliferasyriaca carnica, it was 8.66% while strain Apis mellifera syriaca more that where 22.66%, the results also showed significant differences in the percentage of infection between the strains of bees at the probability P˂0.05. The results also showed that the incidence of Varroa were 23.33% as single infection, while the prevalence of Nosema was 7.33% as single infection and 18.66% as common infection. The results also indicated that the highest percentage of infection was recorded in the province of Najaf which was 44%, while the lowest percentage of infection was in the province of Diwaniyah, where it reached 31%, and the present study didn't find a relationship between provinces and percentage of parasitic infections in bees.