Abstract
Varroa destructor is one of the greatest threats for the European honeybee, Apis mellifera. Acaricides are required to control mite infestation. Three conventional chemical acaricide substances are used in France: tau-fluvalinate, flumethrin and amitraz. Tau-fluvalinate was used for over 10 years before experiencing a loss of effectiveness. In 1995, bioassay trials showed the first mite resistance to tau-fluvalinate. In some countries, amitraz was widely used, also leading to resistance of V. destructor to amitraz. In France, some efficiency field tests showed a loss of treatment effectiveness with amitraz. We adapted the bioassay from Maggi and collaborators to determine mite susceptibility to tau-fluvalinate and amitraz in France in 2018 and 2019. The lethal concentration (LC) which kills 90% of susceptible mite strains (LC90) is 0.4 and 12 µg/mL for amitraz and tau-fluvalinate, respectively. These concentrations were chosen as the determining factors to evaluate mite susceptibility. Some mites, collected from different apiaries, present resistance to amitraz and tau-fluvalinate (71% of the mite samples show resistance to amitraz and 57% to tau-fluvalinate). As there are few active substances available in France, and if mite resistance to acaricides continues to increase, the effectiveness of the treatments will decrease and therefore more treatments per year will be necessary. To prevent this situation, a new strategy needs to be put in place to include mite resistance management. We suggest that a bioassay would be a good tool with which to advise the policymakers.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge all the beekeepers, the veterinarians and the Association of Beekeeping Development in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (ADA AURA) for their participation in this project. We also would like to thank Robin Azemar and Roman Catherin for participating in the bioassay trial. We also would like to thank the reviewers for their advice and their participation in the improvent of the clarity of this article.
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This study was supported by Vita beehealth, the Research and Training center Apinov, and the National Agency of the Technology Research (ANRT). This manuscript is funded by the National Agency of Technology Research (ANRT) (n°2018/0060), Vita beehealth Europe and the Research and Training center, APINOV.
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Benjamin Poirot and Christelle Suppo supervised the research. Material preparation and data collection was carried out by Gabrielle Almecija, Precillia Cochard and Benjamin Poirot. Statistical analysis was collated by Gabrielle Almecija, Précillia Cochard and Christelle Suppo. All authors contributed to the redaction.
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Gabrielle Almecija, Précillia Cochard and Benjamin Poirot are members of Apinov. Apinov has received research grants from Vitabeehealth to provide Research and Development of Vita beehealth’s products in France. Vita beehealth sells the Apistan® product and they also funded a lot of research into the tau-fluvalinate resistance between 1995 and 2000.
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Almecija, G., Poirot, B., Cochard, P. et al. Inventory of Varroa destructor susceptibility to amitraz and tau-fluvalinate in France. Exp Appl Acarol 82, 1–16 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-020-00535-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-020-00535-w