title: Prevalence and epizootical aspects of varroasis in golestan province, northern iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Varroa destructor mite is considered as a major pest of honey bees Apis mellifera. The rapid spread of Varroa mites among bee colonies may be due to several factors, including drifting of infested bees, movement of bee swarms, and robbing of weakened colonies. Disease spread and predisposing the infested bees to other diseases lead to high economic losses in beekeeping industries. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of and evaluate some managing factors in Golestan Province in Iran in 2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  According to the records of Agricultural Research Center, 80 infested beekeeping centers identified and a questionnaire consists of managing factors for each center has been designed. All data were recorded and analyzed by SPSS software to calculate χ(2) test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 80 apiculture centers, 72 centers (92%) were infested to Varroa and hive density of 90.6% of the centers was 31-60 hives in one center (P= 0.324). All of the apiculture centers had more than 6 km distance to nearest beekeeping center (P= 0.687). Amongst bee keepers 15(93.8%) had low literacy level (P= 0.479) and 26(89.7%) had 5-10 years experience in beekeeping (P= 0.953).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We can conclude that because of the high prevalence of the disease, the usual methods of prevention are not effective. This high prevalence emphasizes that we are very far from a solution for Varroa infestation and extra researches on mite biology, tolerance breeding, and Varroa treatment is immediately required.
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Veterinary Medicine Faculty, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Saeid
authors: S
authors: Bokaie
authors: Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors: Laleh
authors: L
authors: Sharifi
authors: Graduated from Azad Islamic University, Garmsar Branch, Garmsar, Iran.
authors: Majid
authors: M
authors: Mehrabadi
keywords: Apis mellifera; Honey bee; Iran; Varroa destructor
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