Apis mellifera is used for honeybee keeping all over Turkey. Recently, honeybees have been suddenly disappearing for no apparent reason. It is presumed that some viral and parasitic honeybee pathogens are responsible for this. No medical research has been conducted to determine the pathologic causes of the sudden die-off of the honeybee colonies in Turkey as yet. This is of urgent importance for future of the honeybee industry.
Neospora caninum is a protozoon parasite that has a worldwide distribution and mainly causes abortion in cattle and current serological evidence shows that the disease may be also zoonotic. Wild birds play a role as a reservoir of the disease in nature. The study aimed to determine the prensence of N. caninum in wild birds.In this study, the presence of neosporosis in wild birds (n=55) including 22 different species found in the western side of Turkey, was investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In addition, PCR positive samples were confirmed by sequencing, BLAST, and phylogenetic analysis using MEGA7.Obtained results showed that the presence of N. caninum DNA was 5.45% (3/55) in brain-heart homogenates wild birds. The bird species which were found positive for N. caninum were little owl (Athene noctua), common buzzard (Buteo buteo), and little tern (Sternula albifrons). According to phylogenetic analysis and BLAST, all samples were compatible with reference N. caninum isolates.To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first study detecting N. caninum in little tern. In future studies, it may be interesting to investigate the prevalence of N. caninum in other wild animals to elucidate the transmission properties.Neospora caninum, dünya çapında dağılım gösteren ve esas olarak sığırlarda düşüklere neden olan protozoon bir parazittir ve güncel serolojik kanıtlar hastalığın zoonotik olabileceğini göstermektedir. Yabani kuşlar, doğada hastalığın rezervuarı olarak rol oynamaktadır. Çalışma, yabani kuşlarda N. caninum varlığının belirlenmesini amaçladı.Bu çalışmada, Türkiye’nin batısındaki 22 farklı yabani kuşta (n=55) neosporosis varlığı polimeraz zincir reaksiyon (PZR) ile araştırılmıştır. Ek olarak, PZR pozitif örnekler sekanslanarak MEGA7 kullanılarak BLAST ve filogenetik analiz ile doğrulanmıştır.Elde edilen sonuçlara göre, yabani kuşların beyin-kalp homojenatlarının %5,45’inde (3/55) N. caninum DNA’sı saptanmıştır. Kukumav (Athene noctua), bayağı şahin (Buteo buteo) ve küçük sumru (Sternula albifrons) N. caninum pozitif bulunan kuş türleridir. Filogenetik analiz ve BLAST sonuçlarına göre, tüm örnekler referans N. caninum izolatları ile uyumlu olarak tespit edilmiştir.Yazarların bildiği kadarıyla bu çalışma, küçük sumruda N. caninum tespit eden ilk çalışmadır. Gelecekteki çalışmalarda N. caninum bulaşma özelliklerini aydınlatmak amacıyla diğer vahşi hayvanlarda prevalansın araştırılması faydalı olabilir.
The conservation of plant–pollinator interactions is important to preserve the mutualism that provides much of the food that humans consume. This interaction is at risk due to factors including climate change, which may shift differentially the phenology of events like flowering and emergence of bee-introduced diseases and parasites that are detrimental to pollinators, and other environmental changes. Our understanding of the conse quences of these threats is limited by our lack of knowledge of the distribution and abundance of pollinator populations, but both honey bees and bumble bees have declined in recent years. Data collection by both scientists and citizen-scientists is helping to solve this problem, for both urban and field studies.
There are limited molecular studies about Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum which are economically important livestock protozoons in wild birds investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Molecular prevalance of both parasites in brain tissues of wild birds in Turkey is unknown. Prevalance of T. gondii was 7%, N. caninum was 14% and mix infection was found 4% in brain tissues of 101 wild birds under 20 species from two different regions of Turkey. The chi-square test has been applied to the acquired data. This is the first molecular biologic investigation for the aim of PCR diagnosis of T. gondii in brain tissues of Corvus corone, Melanitta fusca, Aquila heliaca, Aquila pomarina, Buteo rufinus, Accipiter nisus, Strix aluco and N. caninum in brain tissues of Larus genei, Corvus corone, Melanitta fusca, Anas clypeata, Perdix perdix, Aquila heliaca, Buteo rufinus in the world. This also is the first molecular diagnostic investigation of T. gondii and N. caninum in brain tissues of wild birds in Turkey.
This study has been conducted to determine the efficacy level of cypermethrin on the 14 calves that were naturally infested by Linognathus vituli and Bovicola bovis. A 10% solution of cypermethrin was diluted to 0.1% and applied to infested animals twice. All L. vituli were found to be dead after the fourth day of the first application and the second day of the second application. After the first day of application, all of the B. bovis were found dead at the end of each treatment. This study confirmed the protective efficacy of cypermethrin against L. vituli and B. bovis showing that infestation is prevented for a period of about 24-35 days following administration of cypermethrin at this dose.
AbstractMultiple viral infections are one of the main drivers of honey bee colony losses and threaten the sustainability of colony health. The Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) is one of the common honey bee viruses that can induce overt and/or covert infections in bee colonies. Globally more knowledge is needed about its effects leading to colony losses. ABPV-related pathology includes paralytic, trembling bees, unable to fly and, in some cases, ABPV causes the death of the bee colonies. The molecular phylogenetic of ABPV isolates obtained from apiaries suffering colony losses and/or with CCD-like complaints in Türkiye was performed in this study. The isolates’ structural and non-structural gene regions were analyzed phylogenetically and compared according to sampling years and apiaries. According to the results, the nucleotide identity of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene in Turkish ABPV field isolates is more conserved than the capsid gene. The evaluation of molecular differentiation among the ABPV field isolates can be used for determining the origin and relatedness of ABPV strains and periodic monitoring of ABPV infections in apiaries.Keywords: Acute bee paralysis virussequencingcolony lossesTürkiyehoney bee viruses Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Background:Propolis is a bee product widely used in folk medicine and possessing many pharmacological properties.In this study we aimed to investigate: i) the antiviral activities of Hatay propolis samples against HSV-1 and HSV-2 in HEp-2 cell line, and ii) the presence of the synergistic effects of propolis with acyclovir against these viruses. Material/Methods:All experiments were carried out in HEp-2 cell cultures.Proliferation assays were performed in 24-well flat bottom microplates.We inoculated 1x10 5 cells per ml and RPMI 1640 medium with 10% fetal calf serum into each well.Studies to determine cytotoxic effect were performed.To investigate the presence of antiviral activity of propolis samples, different concentrations of propolis (3200, 1600, 800, 400, 200, 100, 75, 50, and 25 μg/mL) were added into the culture medium.The amplifications of HSV-1 and HSV-2 DNA were performed by realtime PCR method.Acyclovir (Sigma, USA) was chosen as a positive control.Cell morphology was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results:The replication of HSV-1 and HSV-2 was significantly suppressed in the presence of 25, 50, and 100 μg/mL of Hatay propolis.We found that propolis began to inhibit HSV-1 replication after 24 h of incubation and propolis activity against HSV-2 was found to start at 48 h following incubation.The activity of propolis against both HSV-1 and HSV-2 was confirmed by a significant decrease in the number of viral copies. Conclusions:We determined that Hatay propolis samples have important antiviral effects compared with acyclovir.In particular, the synergy produced by antiviral activity of propolis and acyclovir combined had a stronger effect against HSV-1 and HSV-2 than acyclovir alone.
OZET Kis salkimi, kovan ici sicakligin 14°C’nin altina dustugu soguk mevsimlerde, bal arilarinin koloninin devamini saglamak amaciyla sergiledikleri kumelenme davranisidir. Cevre sicakligindaki mevsim disi beklenmeyen artislara, ana ari kaybi ve bazi patojenlere bagli olarak salkim duzeni vaktinden once bozuldugunda koloni kayiplari meydana gelmektedir. Bu arastirma Hatay yoresinde 2010-2011 yili kislatma sezonunda, kis salkimi erken bozulan kolonilerde paraziter ve bakteriyel patojenlerin tespiti amaciyla yapilmistir. Kis salkiminin duzenli surdurulemedigi gozlenen kolonilerde Varroa destructor tanisi icin sivi kavanozda calkalama metodu, Nosema sporlari icin abdominal homojenizasyon metodu, Paenibacillus larvae icin bakteriyel ekim (MYGP agar) ve PCR metotlari kullanilmistir. Hatay yoresindeki alti degisik kislatma alaninda 30 farkli ariliktan orneklenen 900 koloninin tamaminda V. destructor’a (%100), 90’ninda Nosema sporlarina (%10) ve 72’sinde Amerikan Yavru Curuklugu hastaligi etkeni P. larvae’ya (%8) rastlanmistir. Sonuc olarak, kis salkiminin erken bozuldugu kolonilerde kislatma kayiplarinin %30 duzeyine ulastigi tespit edilmistir. Bu kayiplardan sorumlu tutulan hava sicakligindaki ani degisimlerin yaninda bakteriyel ve paraziter patojenlere de ciddi oranlarda rastlanmistir.
