title: A pan-European epidemiological study reveals honey bee colony survival depends on beekeeper education and disease control.
abstract: Reports of honey bee population decline has spurred many national efforts to understand the extent of the problem and to identify causative or associated factors. However, our collective understanding of the factors has been hampered by a lack of joined up trans-national effort. Moreover, the impacts of beekeeper knowledge and beekeeping management practices have often been overlooked, despite honey bees being a managed pollinator. Here, we established a standardised active monitoring network for 5 798 apiaries over two consecutive years to quantify honey bee colony mortality across 17 European countries. Our data demonstrate that overwinter losses ranged between 2% and 32%, and that high summer losses were likely to follow high winter losses. Multivariate Poisson regression models revealed that hobbyist beekeepers with small apiaries and little experience in beekeeping had double the winter mortality rate when compared to professional beekeepers. Furthermore, honey bees kept by professional beekeepers never showed signs of disease, unlike apiaries from hobbyist beekeepers that had symptoms of bacterial infection and heavy Varroa infestation. Our data highlight beekeeper background and apicultural practices as major drivers of honey bee colony losses. The benefits of conducting trans-national monitoring schemes and improving beekeeper training are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Unit of coordination and support to surveillance, ANSES, Scientific Affairs Department for Laboratories, Maisons-Alfort, France.|Unit of Honey bee Pathology, ANSES, European Union and National Reference Laboratory for Honey bee Health, Sophia Antipolis, France.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jacques
authors.affiliation: Unit of Honey bee Pathology, ANSES, European Union and National Reference Laboratory for Honey bee Health, Sophia Antipolis, France.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laurent
authors.affiliation: Unit of Honey bee Pathology, ANSES, European Union and National Reference Laboratory for Honey bee Health, Sophia Antipolis, France.
authors.forename: Magali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ribière-Chabert
authors.affiliation: Unit of coordination and support to surveillance, ANSES, Scientific Affairs Department for Laboratories, Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Mathilde
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saussac
authors.affiliation: Unit of Epidemiology and Welfare of Pork, ANSES, Ploufragan, France.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bougeard
authors.affiliation: Fera, Sand Hutton, York, United Kingdom.|Institute for Agri-Food Research and Innovation, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Giles E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Budge
authors.affiliation: Unit of coordination and support to surveillance, ANSES, Scientific Affairs Department for Laboratories, Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hendrikx
authors.affiliation: Unit of coordination and support to surveillance, ANSES, Scientific Affairs Department for Laboratories, Maisons-Alfort, France.|Unit of Honey bee Pathology, ANSES, European Union and National Reference Laboratory for Honey bee Health, Sophia Antipolis, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Pierre
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Chauzat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056630:Beekeeping / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods*; D001516:Bees / Q000382:microbiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000502:physiology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D010273:Parasitic Diseases, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000469:parasitology / Q000517:prevention & control; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012307:Risk Factors; D012621:Seasons; D057077:Varroidae / Q000502:physiology