Honey is a concentrated aqueous solution of sugar, especially glucose and fructose, and minor amounts of dextrin, enzymes, waxes, volatile oils, organic acids, ethers, albuminoidal gum substances and minerals. Commercially available honey samples vary in quality according to various factors such as climate diversity, type of lora of the surrounding region, geographical characteristics, processing, loral supply period, and packaging and storage conditions, which can compromise the standardization and quality of the inal product. The diferent techniques that will be presented in this chapter to assess the quality of honey are tests required by identiication standards and national and international quality control or are important quality tools that can be used in the evaluation of the conditions for obtaining and processing of the honey, fraud identiication and changes to and/or adulteration of the honey, ensuring the physical and chemical composition of the project and guaranteeing quality standards, directly impacting the shelf life and use and presentation of the product.

ABSTRACT.It is important to select the best honeybees that produce royal jelly to identify important molecular markers, such as major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs), and hence contribute to the development of new breeding strategies to improve the production of this substance. Therefore, this study focused on evaluating the genetic variability of mrjp3, mrjp5, and mrjp8 and associated allele maintenance during the process of selective reproduction in Africanized Apis mellifera individuals, which were chosen based on royal jelly production. The three loci analyzed were polymorphic, and produced a total of 16 alleles, with 4 new alleles, which were identified at mrjp5. The effective number of alleles at mrjp3 was 3.81. The observed average heterozygosity was 0.4905, indicating a high degree of genetic variability at these loci. The elevated F IS values for mrjp3, mrjp5, and mrjp8 (0.4188, 0.1077, and 0.2847, respectively) indicate an excess of homozygotes. The selection of Africanized A. mellifera queens for royal jelly production has maintained the mrjp3 C, D, and E alleles; although, the C allele occurred at a low frequency. The heterozygosity and F IS values show that the genetic variability of the queens is decreasing at the analyzed loci, generating an 6725 ©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 13 (3): 6724-6733 (2014) MRJP marker for Africanized honeybees producing royal jelly excess of homozygotes. However, the large numbers of drones that fertilize the queens make it difficult to develop homozygotes at mrjp3. Mating through instrumental insemination using the drones of known genotypes is required to increase the efficiency of Africanized A. mellifera-breeding programs, and to improve the quality and efficiency of commercial royal jelly apiaries.

The aim of this chapter is to describe the most commonly used techniques to evaluate the microbiological characteristics of honey for the purpose of identifying its contaminant lora, its signiicance and its control in this type of food. Honey is a product that is rich in simple sugars, minerals, vitamins and bioactive compounds and possesses an antimicrobial activity of great signiicance for human health. However, as it has physical and chemical properties that are unfavourable for the proliferation of micro-lora, honey can contain a large population of microorganisms from two sources of contamination-the irst primarily represented by pollen, the digestive system of the bee, dust, air and the lower itself; and the second as the result of negligence and the absence of good health practices during handling and use; for example, placing honey in wooden beehives directly on the loor or the use of improperly washed honey extraction equipment, rather than equipment based on the oxidizable material, or using very dark honeycombs and storing the honey for long periods in wooden beehives. As honey is a natural product, the risks inherent to the lack of industrial processing, such as pasteurization and strict microbiological quality control, are often overlooked.

ABSTRACT. This study aimed to estimate live weight, the length and the width of wing and abdomen and the length, the width and the height of thorax in newly emerged Africanized honeybee queens up to 192 hours and their influence on final quality regarding appropriate storage techniques in queen banking or incubator and to verify the possibility of using these parameters as selection criteria in honeybee breeding programs. Queen honeybees were produced in summer, autumn and winter. The queen production method used throughout the experiments was adapted from Doolittle, and 68 the queens were weighed at emergence. Data were analyzed in R software by regression analysis of queen weight at emergence according to life time after emergence, in two types of storage. The weight of queens emerged in queen banking and incubator was significantly different (p < 0.05), with mean values of 165.61 and 157.04 mg, respectively. Queens kept in an incubator and in queen banking showed no significant differences (p > 0.05) in wing length, abdomen length and thorax height. The weight of queen at emergence can be used as a selection criterion in honeybee breeding programs.Keywords: queen size, emergence, honeybee breeding, queen production.Medidas morfométricas de rainhas africanizadas mantidas em estufa ou colmeia banco de rainhas RESUMO. O objetivo do trabalho foi estimar peso vivo, comprimento e largura de asa e abdome e comprimento, largura e altura do tórax de rainhas Apis mellifera africanizadas recém-emergidas até 192h e sua influência na qualidade final com relação às técnicas apropriadas de armazenamento em banco de rainhas ou estufa e verificar se estes parâmetros podem ser utilizados como critério de seleção. Foram produzidas nas seguintes estações do ano: verão, outono e inverno. O método utilizado durante todo o experimento foi o adaptado de Doolitlle para a produção de rainhas e 68 rainhas foram pesadas à emersão. Os dados foram analisados no software R pela análise de regressão do peso da rainha à emergência em função do tempo de vida após a emersão, nos dois tipos de alojamento. Para peso, os efeitos da colmeia banco de rainhas e estufa foram significativos (p < 0,05), médias de 165,61 e 157,04 mg, respectivamente. As rainhas mantidas em estufa e colmeia banco de rainhas não apresentaram diferenças em relação ao comprimento da asa, ao comprimento do abdome e à altura do tórax. O peso de rainhas à emergência mantidas em colmeia banco de rainhas foi maior que o peso das rainhas mantidas em estufa. O peso das rainhas à emergência pode ser utilizado como critério de seleção.Palavras-chave: tamanho de rainhas, emersão, melhoramento de abelhas, produção de rainhas.

AbstractAn alternative to natural food shortage for honeybees is the provision of supplements. The objective of this research was to develop a method with ideal conditions for the fermentation of a protein supplement for honeybees. The microorganisms used were Lactobacilli, Bifidobacteria and Saccharomyces and the inulin prebiotic. There was an increase in lactic acid and a decrease in pH over a five-day fermentation period. The amount of acid bacteria present was 108–109 CFU/g of supplement. In the first phase the temperature and the humidity had significantly affected the fermentation but the variables inulin and probiotic didn’t. In the second phase, the lower temperatures and higher humidity produced the best effects on the fermentative responses. It was concluded that an ideal environment with temperature, humidity, inulin and probiotics could be created which allowed the fermentation of the protein supplement in five days obtaining final product fermentative characteristics close to bee bread.