4 research outputs found
MEDIBEES: Monitoring the Mediterranean honey bee subspecies and their resilience to climate change for the improvement of sustainable agro-ecosystems
Beekeeping provides livelihood for hundreds of thousands of beekeepers in the Mediterranean area. This activity relies
on a number of different indigenous Apis mellifera subspecies, adapted to the very diverse and harsh conditions of the
region. Climate change is expected to increase the stress factors affecting bees, especially in this region, reducing both
pollination efficiency and production potential. Unfortunately, our ability to address this problem is limited by the
incomplete knowledge of the natural adaptation mechanisms developed by the different subspecies. In order to
increase the knowledge base for future selection programs to improve bee populations for environmental changes,
the MEDIBEES project is being developed. It includes 9 partners from 8 Mediterranean countries on all three shores of
the Mediterranean, covering 10 local A. mellifera subspecies, which represents a remarkable though understudied
proportion of the species genetic diversity. The project aims to: a) unravel the differential genetic background of
Mediterranean subspecies, b) understand their adaptation to local conditions, and c) characterize their resistance to
climate change. To achieve the objectives, colonies belonging to the local subspecies will be studied phenotypically to
determine their behavior under environmental conditions, covering survival, sensitivity to pests/pathogens, behavior,
physiology and reproduction which will be completed by gene expression and transcriptomic assays. In addition,
complete genomes of field and laboratory samples will be sequenced to find genes putatively involved in adaptation
and to develop new genetic tools to characterize honey bee populations according to their resistance to
environmental stress factors. This effort will encourage the use of local subspecies, to make them more attractive and
avoid importing foreign breeds, and will lay the foundation for future selection programs. Besides, the valorization of
honey by both promoting its use and developing quality labels, and the evaluation of beekeeping by-products as
modifiers of soil fertility and biota are also approached to help the beekeepers improve the sustainability of their farms
in an economical and environmental sound manner.Medibees part of the PRIMA programme supported by the European Unioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Main practices, challenges and expected solution identified in the Mediterranean beekeeping industry
Globally honeybees are threatened by a plethora of biotic and abiotic stressors. One factor of great concern is climate
change due to its direct impact on wild and agricultural ecosystems. Indeed beekeeping, with its symbiotic interdependence
with vegetation, is an industry that will be strongly affected by climate change. Although the Mediterranean is a region
that is highly vulnerable to climate change, no study has comprehensively analysed the possible effects on honeybees. The
MEDIBEES project aims to remedy this situation by studying the honeybee subspecies native to the Mediterranean region
and their resilience to climate change, in an attempt to safeguard the beekeeping sector. In this framework, the following
approaches were adopted to determine the common Practices, Challenges and Problems in the region and to identify
scientific gaps and solutions expected by beekeepers:
• Review of the effects of biotic and abiotic stressors on honeybee colonies as well as legislation in the MEDIBEES
consortium to identify common threats.
• Study of current challenges, priority areas considered by beekeepers as important to survive as an industry, beekeeping
practices and existing resources in each country to determine common trends and challenges across the Mediterranean.
• Analysis of the responses to a questionnaire distributed among 1160 beekeepers to obtain information on stakeholder
practices, challenges faced and the main problems encountered.
In this way, a profile of beekeeping activity and beekeepers in the region was obtained. The main challenges and problems
identified were: a) changes in weather patterns that could be affect colony dynamics, production losses and increasing
mortality; b) of incidence of pathogens in the area (Varroa destructor, Nosema ceranae, SBV and DWV) and the lack
of training programmes to control them; c) agricultural insecticides and acaricide residues. As main areas of interest,
beekeepers pointed out the possible existence of adapted ecotypes, the need for training to distinguish between hybrids
and purebreds, and the study of the effect that climate change will have on phenology and plant availability and on changes
in the distribution areas of pathogens in the area.
This project is part of the PRIMA programme supported by the European Union.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
General beekeeping practices and main stressors identified by beekeepers in the Mediterranean
Beekeeping is an ecologically and economically important activity in the Mediterranean that is increasingly under
threat from a combination of factors. In the MEDIBEES (Monitoring the Mediterranean honey bee subspecies and their
resilience to climate change for the improvement of sustainable agro-ecosystems) PRIMA project we aim to identify
honey bees that show resilience to stressors associated with climate change. An important first step in our work was
to establish baseline data of practices in the region through the administering of a questionnaire on the beekeeping
practices. Over 1022 responses were received from beekeepers in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Spain,
Portugal and Turkey.
Beekeeping was overwhelmingly male dominated (ratio 9:1) and practiced largely by the middle-aged (mainly
between 40-50 years). The majority of beekeepers reported having 10-50 boxes with the exceptions of Algeria and
Jordan where the majority reported keeping more than 100 hive boxes. Across the Mediterranean the Langstroth hive
box was most commonly used. Despite the perception of migratory beekeeping being frequently practiced, only
Lebanon and Turkey reported significant levels of transhumance (>50.0 and 70.0% of beekeepers respectively). 51.2%
of beekeepers reported practicing queen rearing with the majority of these (51.4%) reporting re-queening their
colonies every 2 years. Interestingly, the majority of all beekeepers agreed with the statement that their native honey
bee is endangered where pesticide use, lack of adequate forage and parasite infestations such as the Varroa mite
were repeatedly cited as causing the greatest losses to honey bees in general. Climate change and urbanisation were
also linked with colony losses by causing habitat loss. Supplementary feeding was reported to be an integral part of
beekeeping in this region, with beekeepers reporting using between 0-5kg, closely followed by 6-10 kg of additional
sugars.MEDIBEES part of the PRIMA programme supported by the European Unioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
A sequenciação de nova geração como uma abordagem promissora para a identificação da origem entomológica do mel
O mel é um alimento muito consumido e apreciado em todo o mundo pelas suas
propriedades nutricionais e organoléticas, bem como pelos seus efeitos benéficos para a
saúde. No entanto, é também considerado um dos alimentos mais suscetíveis de ser
adulterado, quer pela mistura de mel de qualidade inferior, quer pela adição de açúcares,
ou pela rotulagem incorreta da origem botânica e/ou geográfica, entre outras possíveis
fraudes. Nos últimos anos, tem sido dada uma atenção crescente à origem entomológica
do mel, uma vez que esta também está relacionada com a origem geográfica. No âmbito
do projeto PRIMA “MEDIBEES” (https://medibees.org/), a sequenciação de nova
geração (NGS) será utilizada com vista ao desenvolvimento de ferramentas moleculares
que permitam identificar a origem entomológica de amostras de mel provenientes dos 8
países mediterrânicos do consórcio, de forma a diferenciar e valorizar méis produzidos
por abelhas autóctones destes países. Com este objetivo, inicialmente procedeu-se à
construção da base de dados das sequências de DNA mitocondrial das abelhas de modo
a incluir 10 subespécies mediterrânicas das 4 linhagens maternas (A, M, C e O). Para tal,
procedeu-se à extração de DNA e à respetiva sequenciação dos genomas completos, na
plataforma Illumina Novaseq 6000, de um total de 1095 abelhas destes países.
Posteriormente, utilizou-se o programa mitoZ 3.6 para fazer a montagem do genoma
mitocondrial de cada uma das amostras, resultando na seleção de 283 sequências
mitocondriais com boa montagem. Em seguida, foi utilizado o software MEGA 11, para
realizar o alinhamento destas sequências. A informação obtida será posteriormente
utilizada para a seleção de regiões com variantes (SNPs) informativos que possam ser
usadas para o desenho de primers adequados e desenvolvimento de ferramentas para a
identificação de méis produzidos por abelhas de diferentes linhagens mitocondriais e
respetivas subespécies.Financiado pelos projetos “PRIMA, MEDIBEES: Monitoring the Mediterranean honeybee subspecies and their resilience to climate change for the improvement of sustainable agro-ecosystems.”. Os autores agradecem também à Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) pelo apoio financeiro através dos fundos nacionais FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) ao CIMO
(UIDB/00690/2020 e UIDP/00690/2020) e à SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020), M. Honrado e Carlos Garcia agradecem a bolsa de doutoramento financiada pela FCT (2021.08119.BD e 2021.06948.BD, respetivamente)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio