Situation of Beekeeping in North Africa

Abstract

North Africa is a Mediterranean climatic zone characterized by mild winters and hot and dry summers. The flora of this region is similar to that of south Spain and Italy. Apis mellifera intermissa is indigenous subspecies found in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. In Egypt, the indigenous subspecies is Apis mellifera lamarckii. The two subspecies are characterized by great adaptability to climatic conditions and by a marked cleaning behavior. Among hive products, honey is the most common in these countries cultures. However, the number of hives and the honey production remains low compared to the rest of the world and beekeeping is facing many problems such as diseases in particular varroa mites, insecticides, ecosystem degradation and climate change. All these factors can weaken the local bee and affect negatively the production of honey and colony development. Kuzey Afrika, ılıman kışlar ve sıcak ve kurak yazlarla karakterize bir Akdeniz iklim bölgesidir. Bu bölgenin florası, güney İspanya ve İtalya'nınkine benzemektedir. Apis mellifera intermissa, Tunus, Cezayir ve Fas'ta bulunan yerli alt türdür. Mısır'da yerli alt tür Apis mellifera lamarckii'dir. İki alt tür, iklim koşullarına mükemmel uyum ve belirgin bir temizleme davranışı ile karakterize edilmektedir. Kovan ürünleri arasında bal, bu ülke kültürlerinde en yaygın olanıdır. Bununla birlikte, kovan sayısı ve bal üretimi dünyanın geri kalanına göre düşük kalmaktadır ve arıcılık, arıcılık, hastalıklar, özellikle de akar böcekleri, böcek öldürücüler, ekosistem bozulması ve iklim değişikliği gibi birçok sorunla karşı karşıyadır. Tüm bu faktörler yerel arıyı zayıflatabilir ve bal üretimini ve koloni gelişimini olumsuz etkileyebilir.

A Spotlight on the Egyptian Honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii)

“…Its colonies include fewer bees (8000–10,000) compared to the European subspecies, which have more than 40,000 bees. A. m. lamarckii was found to exhibit a higher mass specific metabolism than the European A. m. carnica , and A. m. lamarckii, being more aggressive, active, and well adapted to its environment [ 11 , 47 ]. Another characteristic of A. m. lamarckii is the presence of half-queens, which are intermediate in morphology between queens and workers.…”

Analysis of Tunisian Beekeepers' Perceptions in Honey Bee Diseases and Pests Management

“…The data in this table support that V. destructor is actually a pan-global pest, observed worldwide (Boncristiani et al, 2020 andChauhan et al, 2021) including the Mediterranean region: Egypt (Kugonza, 2020), Turkey (Kösoğlu et al, 2019), Spain, and Greece. Varroa mites have also been detected in Tunisia (Pirk et al, 2016;Abdelkader, 2020 andKugonza, 2020). Beekeepers can easily identify Varroa mites at the naked eye: they notice small reddish or brownish spots, about the size of a pinhead, on the thorax of a honeybee or on the larva (Kugonza, 2020).…”