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Deliverable 2.2 is the result of a bottom-up survey analysis carried out by B-THENET, the first Thematic Network for EU Beekeepers. The deliverable consists of two documents: - The present summary report, meant to support and contextualise the results of the survey included in the database; - The database (Excel document) containing the results of the survey concerning the priority practices, as ANNEX 2. A specific survey was set up to prioritize practices and was distributed to EU beekeepers. We received 2,094 answers from beekeepers of 22 EU countries. The most relevant practices according to beekeepers' needs were related to: 1. For the Good Beekeeping Practices category: - “Properly place hives in the apiary” (24 practices); - “Proper comb storage” (13 practices). 2. For the Biosecurity Measures category: - “Optimize the efficacy of anti-varroa treatments” (29 practices); - “Produce nuclei and swarms with no clinical signs of varroa” (5 practices).

Apiculture is an important economy sector, facing a real health crisis. Honeybees, as well as other insect pollinator populations have been in decline over recent decades, and diseases are one of the principal challenges. To face this situation, public and private veterinary services are needed to manage surveillance, control, eradication and prevention measures of honeybee diseases within their territories, in close collaboration with beekeepers and farmers. It is necessary urgently to clarify the current problems and threats to apiculture in the public health sector. Due to possible interactions between bee health and production, the negative effects of environmental xenobiotics and climate change, this field must be considered as an interdisciplinary research issue. Moreover, honeybee veterinary medicine is increasingly engaged in the One Health approach, due to the possibility that the poor health of honeybee colonies affects human life. This review identified the key veterinarian roles, gaps in their higher education curriculum, as well as the necessity for research linkage between expectations and professional perspectives., Pčelarstvo je važan sektor gospodarstva koji se suočava sa zdravstvenom krizom. Zajednice medonosne pčele, kao i populacije drugih kukaca oprašivača se smanjuju posljednjih desetljeća. Bolesti se smatraju jednim od glavnih uzroka gubitaka u pčelarstvu. Kako bi se suočili s tim problemom potrebno je povoditi veterinarski nadzor, kontroliranje, suzbijanje i preveniranje bolesti pčela uključivanjem javnih i privatnih veterinarskih organizacija na području njihova djelovanja i u bliskoj suradnji s pčelarima i poljoprivrednicima. Nužno je potrebno osvijestiti aktualnu problematiku i ugroženost pčelarstva u javnozdravstvenom sektoru. Zbog mogućih negativnih učinaka ksenobiotika iz okoliša i klimatskih promjena na zdravlje i proizvodnju pčelinjih zajednica ovo područje zahtjeva provedbu intradisciplinarnih istraživanja. Štoviše, veterinarska medicina u području zdravlja zajednica medonosne pčele zauzima iznimno važan pristup Jednog zdravlja upravo zbog mogućnosti da narušeno zdravlje pčelinjih zajednica može negativno utjecati na zdravlje ljudi. U ovom radu istaknute su glavne uloge veterinara u pčelarstvu, nedostatci u kurikulima studijskih programa veterinarske medicine visokoobrazovnih ustanova i nužnosti provedbe istraživanja koja povezuju očekivanja i stručne perspektive.

Honeybee colonies are excellent bio-samplers of biological material such as nectar, pollen, and plant pathogens, as well as non-biological material such as pesticides or airborne contamination. The INSIGNIA-EU project aims to design and test an innovative, non-invasive, scientifically proven citizen science environmental monitoring protocol for the detection of pesticides, microplastics, heavy metals, and air pollutants by honey bee colonies http://insignia-eu.eu. In the pilot INSIGNIA project (2018-2021), a protocol was developed and tested for citizen-science-based monitoring of pesticides using honeybees. As part of the project, biweekly pollen was obtained from sentinel apiaries over a range of European countries and landscapes and analysed for botanical origin, using state-of-theart molecular techniques such as metabarcoding. An innovative non-biological matrix, the “APIStrip”, was also proved to be very efficient for detecting the residues of 273 agricultural pesticides and veterinary products, both authorized and unauthorized. The data collected are used to develop and test a spatial modelling system aimed at predicting the spatiallyexplicit environmental fate of pesticides and honeybee landscape-scale pollen foraging, with a common underlying geo-database containing European land-use and land-cover data (CORINE), the LUCAS database (landcover) supplemented with national data sets on agricultural and (semi-) natural habitats. After a call by the European Commission, a new 2 years project was granted aiming to present a comprehensive pan-European environmental pollution monitoring study with honey bees. Although pesticides used in agriculture, are a known hazard due to their biological activity, other pollutants, have even been recognized as such, for which we have not been aware of their impact for many years. An example is air pollution which increased while our societies industrialized and is currently regarded as the single largest environmental health risk in Europe (https://www.eea.europa.eu/). Unfortunately, other pollutants such as heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, airborne particulate matter, and microplastics have also reached our environment. The outcome of this project will provide the first standardized EU-wide monitoring of all types of environmental pollutants with honey bee colonies. The project is funded by the EU, under the N° 09.200200/2021/864096/SER/ ENV.D.2 contract. EU, under the N° 09.200200/2021/864096/SER/ ENV.D.2 contract info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Different brood interruption methods combined with chemical treatment may successfully remove most V. destructor from the honey bee colonies. Further, the timely brood reduction or break may positively impact nectar intake and is occasionally used by beekeepers during the main spring flow to increase honey production. However, the experience and data on the effect of brood break on honey production during the main summer flow are scarce or contradictory. To try to find an answer, several Varroa Task Force members started an experiment in 2021. The study takes place at 10 apiaries in 7 countries (Algeria, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Italy, Spain and Turkey). At each location, three different groups with at least 5 colonies per group were established. In two groups, queens were confined for 28 days in a small cage 28 (QC1) or 14 (QC2) days before the expected main summer honey harvest. The third group (C) of colonies had free laying queens to serve as a control group. In total 207 colonies are included in this year study. All colonies were evaluated for strength (number of frames with bees and brood) every 14 days after the experiment started. The net weight of extracted honey for each colony was measured. Adult bee infestation was measured at the beginning of the experiment and 42 days after the treatment of the control group. Queen caging groups were treated by OA trickling 28 days from the day of queens’ caging. The C group was treated by each partner using usual practices. At the beginning of experiment, there was no difference in colony strength between groups (ANOVA, F (2, 206) = 0.030, p = 0.971). A number of frames occupied with bees was significantly lower in QC groups comparing to C group 42 days after the caging but not 56 days after caging. Briefly, they started and finished with equal strength. Further, there was no significant difference in adult bee infestation at the beginning of the trial. However, at the last measurement (42 days after the treatment of QC1 and C group and 28 days after the treatment of QC2 group) significant differences are found (H = 12.825, p = 0.002). Namely, QC1 group had lower infestation comparing to C group. In the analysis of honey production, apiary and group as fixed factors were used in the model. Apiary as a factor had significant effect (GLM, F (9, 206) = 64.921, p < 0.001) with wide distribution of extracted honey between apiaries (average from 1.45 kg to 29.50 kg/apiary). Significant differences between groups are found (F (2, 206) = 4, 556, p=0.012), with group QC1 having lower amount of extracted honey comparing to QC2 and C groups. No significant differences were found between QC2 and C group. Preliminary results showed that QC1 group had a significantly lower final infestation, as well as honey production. On the other hand, QC2 group had the same amount of produced honey and final infestation as a control group. Measurements of colony strength before and after wintering period are planned.

Assessment of colony infestation by Varroa destructor is a crucial part of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) applied to beekeeping. Natural mite fall, quantified by counting the mites on sticky sheets, is considered a reference method to estimate varroa infestation level in honey bee colonies. However, in recent years, alternative methods that can be used in field conditions have been investigated. In this paper, we report the results of the evaluation of two different methods to estimate the levels of varroa infestation. The experiment involved 151 honey bee colonies in nine apiaries of four countries (Algeria, Croatia, Italy, Poland). After the main honey flow, we compared the 10-day natural mite fall and the powdered sugar roll methods with the varroa population in each colony. According to our results, the powdered sugar roll method could be suggested to beekeepers as a suitable IPM tool for varroa control, while natural mite fall represents a more accurate method that could be adopted for selection/research purposes.

This guideline is a general guideline for the application of honey bee colonies for bio-monitoring and how to organise an Apicultural citizen science study. The study objective determines the toolbox for the beekeepers. This guideline has been designed and tested for its practical and scientific merits in the INSIGNIA study 2018-2021. This resulted in a best practice guide for Apicultural citizen science studies for bio-monitoring with honey bee colonies.The supporting INSIGNIA studies, reports, and publications are available on theINSIGNIA website (https://www.insignia-bee.eu) - publications. This website will bemaintained for seven (7) years after the end of the INSIGNIA study 2018-2021.