![](../TEMPORAL/2024-TROPILAELAPS-EUROPA.jpg)
(
Espacio Apícola - July 13, 2024)
Tropilaelaps spp. is a mite native of
Southeast Asia. The original host of
Tropilaelaps mercedesae was the Asian giant honey bee, which makes open air honeycombs,
Apis dorsata and from this it would have passed to
Apis cerana, which makes honeycombs in cavities, in
Thailand,
Pakistan, and
Myanmar,
A. florea and
A. indica in
India,
A. laboriosa in
Vietnam, and
A. dorsata in Palawan, the
Philippines, as described by
Panuwan Chantawannaku and others in a paper published in 2018.
When
Apis mellifera shares the same areas where those species that are natural hosts live, it becomes infected and, the same article cited indicates that
Tropilaelaps spp. is more harmful than
Varroa destructor in some
Southeast Asian countries. However, this is not the case in
South Korea where
Woo and
Lee reported it in 1993, nor in
Krasnodar, in the southwest of
Russia, in the
European continent, near the coasts of the
Black Sea, the border with
Ukraine and
Georgia close to Caucasus as described by
Anna Brandof,
Victoria Soroker and others in a work published last May in the
Journal of Apicultural Research.
The latter raises great concern due to its proximity to the native region of
Apis mellifera caucasica, so appreciated in Western beekeeping. This area is between two confirmed foci of
Tropilaelaps in
Apis mellifera, the
Islamic Republic of Iran to the south and southern
Russia to the north, between the
Black Sea and the
Caspian Sea (see map).
According to the comments that a renowned American beekeeper and biologist received during a beekeeping conference held in
Azerbaijan,
Azeri beekeepers told him that it was only a matter of time until the mite parasitised their colonies and from the rest of Europe.
Countries are obliged to notify the occurrence of
Tropilaelaps for the
Organisation internationale des épizooties (
OIE), currently the
World Organization for Animal Health (
WOAH), hence the importance of obtaining bee genetics from safe and certified bee farms free of this parasite. In addition to the "mechanical" damage caused by parasitosis,
Tropilaelaps harbors deformed wing virus (
DWV) and black queen cell virus (
BQCV).
Tropilaelaps spp. It inhabits both tropical and temperate climates. It is currently present in countries where its original host is not native (map).