Effects of climate change on rice production: The case of Turkey

Abstract

American FoulBrood (AFB) is one of the most severe bacterial diseases that affect larvae of honey bee Apis mellifera, causing a decrease of bee population and colony production and due to the serious effects associated with AFB disease and the problems related to the use of antibiotics, it is necessary to develop alternative strategies for the control of the disease. The aim of this study was to determine, under field conditions, the effectiveness of tylosin and three kind of ethanolic extract propolis (Chinese, Egyptian and old wax comb extract propolis) for controlling AFB disease in honey bee colonies. Identification of Phenolic composition of the ethanolic extract samples were investigated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) instrument. Laboratory studies were conducted to determine the LC50 (half lethal concentration) and LT50 (half lethal time) values were determine. In field trials the colonies were inoculated with AFB disease for three weeks before initiation of trial or treated with tylosin, 0.1, 0.05 and 0.025% ethanolic extract propolis (EEP) which extracted from Chinese propolis, Egyptian propolis, old wax comb extract and fed with sugar syrup only for three weeks at one week intervals. Field assays showed that the treatment of beehives affected with AFB disease by tylosin 1% and Egyptian EEP in concentration of 0.1 and 0.05% had elimination of clinical symptoms at 100% of reduction rate. Key words: American foulbrood, ethanolic extract propolis (EEP), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), honey bee disease, natural treatments.