Chemical control of the Varroa mite (Varroa destructor), which is one of the most important pests of honey bees, is practiced on a worldwide scale. However, because of abundant use of different acaricides, the mites have become resistant to many of them. We chose to apply non-synthetic chemicals for control of Varroa mites by using thyme (Thymus caucasicus) ethanol extract on honey bees. In September-October 2013, we collected wild thyme growing in Kurdistan mountains, ground it, and its ethanol extract was made by using 95% ethylic alcohol. We used a randomized complete design with ten treatments of different concentrations of ethanol extract of thyme as a statistical model and one control with pure 95% ethanol with four replications. The interior temperature of the brood chamber was measured to be 30 ± 1°C, and the ambient temperature surrounding them was 33 ± 2°C. We sprayed the extracted thyme solution on honey bees and counted the number of dead mites by picking them out from the bottom board of each hive at every 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h intervals after spraying. The results showed that the use of the thyme extract influenced significantly the percentage of mortality of dead mites in the extract-sprayed treatment and the control treatment. The percentage of mortality of the honey bees in control hives and the honey bees treated by thyme ethanol extract did not have a significant difference. Results of our experiment using ethanol extract of thyme showed that its use in hives was safe without a high risk of mortality for honey bees.
In this research, the goal of review was summarizing the current knowledge of the methods available to assess in vitro quality of frozen-thawed bovine spermatozoa also, a review on animal’s semen characteristics: fertility, reproduction and development after AI with that semen. Artificial insemination (AI) is the first generation reproductive biotechnology that has made a deep contribution to the genetics improvement in several animals. A fertile ejaculate must meet certain semen characteristics quality standards, such as: normal morphology, active energy metabolism, progressive motility, structural integrity and functionality of the membrane, penetration capacity and optimum transfer of genetic material. The percentage of total motile spermatozoa in normal canine ejaculates is between 70 to 90%. By the way, there are a lot of parameters that able to change on the composition and structure of various sperm plasma member domains, such as change temperature and sensitive to any theirs environments in vivo and vitro (tropical climates), season also nutrition. Computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA) is primarily used to obtain accurate and objective kinetic sperm measurements that gives extensive information about the kinetic property of the ejaculate based on measurements of the individual sperm cells.
In the current study, the infertility of Varroa mite was compared in resistant (VSH) and control honeybee colonies at the University of Garmian of Iraq. At each stage, the infestation rate, the percentage of fertile mites, the percentage of infertile mites, the number of cells containing mite eggs, and the number of protonymphs and deutonymphs were counted. Percentages of infestation in resistant and control colonies were 6.2 ± 0.9 and 10.9 ± 1.2, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in the percentage of infested cells between the control and resistant groups (p < 0.05). Moreover, 56.3% of the resistant colonies and 37.50% of the control colonies showed hygienic behaviour (VHS). Resistant colonies showed hygienic behaviour (VHS) regarding the removal of infested pupae and reducing the infestation in colonies compared to control colonies. Mean total infertility in resistant and control colonies were 1.4 ± 0.4 and 1.1 ± 0.3, respectively. Also, the total mean of protonymphs, deutonymphs, and eggs in resistant and control colonies were 0.06, 1.3 ± 0.4, and 2.6 ± 0.8 in resistant colonies and 0.2, 1.3 ± 0.8, and 2.6 ± 1 in control colonies. The results showed that VSH behaviour in adult bees reduces the rate of infestation by Varroa mites in pupas.
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