Detection ofAethina tumidaMurray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae.) in Italy: outbreaks and early reaction measures

Abstract

The first detection of Aethina tumida Murray (the small hive beetle) in Italy occurred on 5 September 2014. Three nuclei containing honey bees (Apis mellifera) and located in a clementine (citrus) orchard near an important international harbour in the Calabria region (southern Italy) were heavily infested with adult and larval A. tumida. A. tumida infestation is a notifiable disease of honey bees in the European Union as well as an OIE listed disease. To prevent any A. tumida introduction, the importation of honey bees is regulated strictly in the European Union (Commission Regulation (EU) No. 206/2010). Early reaction measures adopted in Italy require that beekeepers must notify A. tumida discovery to the local veterinary services and cannot move their colonies. Furthermore, a protection area (20 km radius) and surveillance (100 km radius) zone should be established. The surveillance zone now includes the entire territory of Calabria region. Compulsory visits to all apiaries in the protection zone with the collection of the spatial information by means of a georeferentiation process (georeferentiation can be defined as the process to describe a location relative to the earth, in this context the process consists on the collection of the spatial coordinate of a point that represents the spatial location of the apiaries by means of a GPS device) and colony inspection according to 5% expected prevalence (95% CI) are applied. Destruction of infested apiaries is compulsory and the soil under the infested colonies must be ploughed and treated with pyrethroids. If apiaries in the protection zone are found to be negative, traps are placed. In the surveillance zone, veterinarians visit apiaries that are selected according to a risk analysis (migration in infested areas, honey bee or materials exchange) or randomly and colonies are inspected according to 2% expected prevalence (95% CI). Furthermore, in Italy as well in the rest of Europe, investigations are in progress by competent authorities to make an inventory of all bees and colonies moved from Calabria during 2014.Subsequent controls on colonies should be implemented. People from the honey bee network (beekeepers, veterinarians, beekeeping material producers and distributors) should be aware and informed of the hazard posed by A. tumida to honey bees. Detección de Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) en Italia: los brotes y las medidas de reacción tempranaResumen La primera detección de Aethina tumida Murray (el pequeño escarabajo de la colmena) en Italia se produjo el 5 de septiembre de 2014. Tres núcleos ubicados en un huerto de clementinas cerca de un importante puerto internacional en la región de Calabria (sur de Italia) aparecieron muy infectados con la presencia de coleópteros adultos y de larvas. La infestación por A. tumida es una enfermedad de las abejas de Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 09:34 16 June 2015 570 Mutinelli et al.

Introduction of Aethina tumida (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) in the regions of Calabria and Sicily (southern Italy)

“…Larvae were found on the nest frames in a very limited number of infested apiaries. We observed typical signs of beetle-associated damage in only one infested, abandoned apiary (Mutinelli et al 2014;Mutinelli 2016a). …”

“…tumida was exotic to Europe until September 2014, when Italy reported an outbreak in the south of the country (Mutinelli et al 2014;Palmeri et al 2015). The pest was reported for the first time on 5 September 2014 (Palmeri et al 2015) in the municipality of Gioia Tauro, in the region of Calabria,southern Italy (38.4547 N,15.9411 E).…”

“…A further outbreak outside the region of Calabria was later detected on 7 November in a migratory apiary located in the municipality of Melilli (37.27224 N, 15.06722 E), in the region of Sicily, southern Italy. This apiary has been in the Gioia Tauro area from April to August 2014 and was returned to Sicily at the end of the productive season (Mutinelli et al 2014). Until now, this was the only apiary found to be infested by SHBs outside Calabria.…”

“…Intensive surveillance activity was immediately initiated by official veterinarians in collaboration with beekeepers to try and determine how far the beetle had already spread in the regions of Calabria and Sicily (Mutinelli et al 2014;Mutinelli 2016a). In Calabria, 60 infested apiaries were detected between September and December 2014 within a radius of 20 km of the infested sites, identified as the protection zone.…”

Honeybee health in Africa—a review

“…One key driver is the international trade in honeybees and bee products, which serves as an active means for the introduction of non-native species and the consequential spread of pathogens, parasites and pests (e.g. recent introduction of small hive beetles in Italy) (Mutinelli 2011;Mutinelli et al 2014). As experienced in other parts of the world, honeybee populations in Africa have also been affected by the introduction of novel pathogens, parasites and pests (Varroa destructor , American foulbrood, Nosema ceranae ) as well as habitat loss (Hussein 2001a, b;Dietemann et al 2009).…”