MICROSCOPIC AND MOLECULAR DETECTION OF NOSEMA SP. IN THE SOUTHWEST AEGEAN REGION

Abstract

Beekeeping, performed in many parts of the world, has a very large place in the world trade market with bee products such as wax, bee venom, propolis and royal jelly, especially honey production. However, honey bee diseases are quite common and restricted the production of bee products. One of the most important of these diseases, Nosema, is caused by spores in intestinal epithelium cells of the honeybee. Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae are the factors of this disease and also common in our country. These two species can be distinguished from each other by molecular diagnostic methods. In this study, materials collected from 152 apiaries located in 13 districts of Muğla province and 62 water sources close to these apiaries. The spores were counted using Thoma lame under light microscope. DNA isolation was carried out from spore positive samples. 218MITOC FOR-REV and 321APIS FOR-REV primers were used to figure out the N. apis and N. ceranae species. After DNA sequence analysis of the obtained amplifications, it was determined that all samples formed 3 haplotypes according to studied sequences for the first time. In Muğla region, the presence of only N. ceranae as a disease agent was determined and the prevalence of the disease was detected at a rate of 71.53±6.02%. Moreover, blast analysis showed that the N. ceranae sequence detected high similarity (94-100 %) with the previously reported in Lebanon, France, Morocco and Thailand samples.