Study of honeybee colonies Mycoflora in West Azarbaijan

Document Type : Full Research Paper

Authors

1 Member of Board Scientific Agriculture Research Center and Nature Resource West Azarbaijan.

2 Member of Scientific Board, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Karaj, Iran.

Abstract

In this study that its main goal is identification of honeybee colonies mycoflora in West Azarbaijan province, 2000 samples of adult bee (500 samples), larvae and pupae (500 samples), pollen (500 samples) and honey (500 samples), randomly collected of apiaries in 1384-1389. After preparing and culturing of samples in SDA media, many different fungi and yeasts isolated. During three seasons of sampling, 357 samples of Adult bee (71.4 %), 353 samples of larvae and pupae (70.6 %), 459 samples of pollen (91.8 %) and 364 samples of honey (72.8 %) were contaminated with different fungi and yeasts. Main fungi and yeasts that identified and their percent were: Aternaria spp. 2.9%, Aspergillus. fl (4.5%), Aspergillus fumigatus (4.55%), Aspergillus niger (13%), Aspergillus spp. (0.1%), Cladosporium spp. 0.65%, Helmetosporiun spp. 3.9%, Mucor spp. 7.65%, Paecilomyces spp. 0.8%, Penicillium spp. (12.15%), Rhizopus spp. (0.4%), Scopolariupsis spp. (0.9%), Sepdonium spp. (0.3%), Stemphylium spp. (0.9%), Yeasts (58.05%).
This study shows that honey bee colonies can be contaminated with many fungi and yeasts that much of them are pathogenic for human. In other hand, most of those fungi can produce different mycotoxines and metabolites that are harmful for honeybee products consumers.

Keywords


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