Incidence of Honeybee Virus and Nosema on Flowering Period of Acacia in 2013 of Korea
There are about 20 thousand beekeepers caring for approximately 1.8 million colonies in Korea. Honey production totaled almost 27 thousand M/T in 2012. Virus and nosema cause significant losses in honey production and decrease population size. We initiated a survey of honey bee colonies on blooming period of Acacia to determine the prevalence of virus and nosema in 2013. Forty eight hives owned by 16 beekeepers were sampled in this year. The six most important honeybee viruses were investigated by RT-PCR. Among them, four different viruses were detected in samples. BQCV and SBV were present in samples from all. Prevalence of IAPV was 31%. KBV were present in only 6% of the samples. However, CBPV and DWV were not detected in any of samples. Nosema spore counts ranged from zero to 1.94 million spores per bee. The average number of nosema spores per bee was 425,000. Approximately 94% of colonies were infected with nosema based on the presence of spores in flowering period of Acacia. It illustrated that nosema, and BQCV and SBV in virus were the predominant species affecting honeybee colonies.