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Submitted on 19 Nov 2015
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Honeybee Conservation centers in Western Europe: an
innovative strategy using sustainable beekeeping to
reduce honeybee decline
Miguel Vilas Boas, Maria Alice Pinto, Catia Neves, Lionel Garnery, Hélène
Legout, Sylvie Houte, Jean Francois Odoux, Andone Estonba, Irati Miguel,
Iratxe Montes, et al.
To cite this version:
Miguel Vilas Boas, Maria Alice Pinto, Catia Neves, Lionel Garnery, Hélène Legout, et al.. Honeybee
Conservation centers in Western Europe: an innovative strategy using sustainable beekeeping to reduce
honeybee decline. 44. Apimondia congress, Sep 2015, Daejon, South Korea. 2015. �hal-01216261�
Honeybee Conservation centers in Western Europe:
an innovative strategy using sustainable beekeeping
to reduce honeybee decline
Miguel VILAS BOAS1, Maria Alice PINTO1, Cátia NEVES1,, Lionel GARNERY2, Hélène LEGOUT2,
Sylvie HOUTE3, Jean-François ODOUX4, Andone ESTONBA5, Irati MIGUEL5, Iratxe MONTES5,
Noel MALLET6, Claude GRENIER6, Jean-Charles LABAT6, Luc CHAMPIN6, Jonathan COLOMBET7,
Samuel GUYOT7, Télesphore SIME-NGANDO7, Frédéric DELBAC7, Iris EOUZAN7, David G. BIRON7 1Centro de Inv estigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia,
5301-855 Bragança, Portugal; 2EGCE, UMR CNRS 9191, Paris, France; 3Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé–
approv ed ILTER - UPR CNRS 1934, France; 4Centre INRA Poitou-Charentes, France; 5Univ ersidad del País Vasco,
Spain; 6Ly cée Prof essionnel Agricole / Centre Régional de f ormation d’Appre ntis, St-Gerv ais, France; 7LMGE, U MR
CNRS 6023, Aubière, France.
For about 20 years, the European honeybee has been subjected to a constant decline for which pesticides and pathogens seem to be the main contributors . However, recent surveys suggest that current honeybee declines in European apiaries can be also caused by commercial and European trade of honeybees by (i) the introduction of
unadapted and artificially maintained colonies, and (ii) the spread of allochtone and invasive pathogens carried by allochtone hone ybees. Large molecular surveys have
already been performed in France (Fig. 1A), in Spain and Portugal (Fig. 1B) to characterize the French, Spanish and Portuguese livestock of honeybees , and to assess the impact of importations of foreign queens . In France, high levels of introgression were measured in north-east and southwest. In these areas, the situation is worrying for the M lineage, especially for the native subspecies (the black honeybee), which genetic integrity is seriously threatened by C-lineage introgression (Fig. 1A).
Like most species, the «natural» genetic structure of the honeybee is the result of complex alternating evolutionary processes such as population history and demography, putative isolation of groups of populations during glacial events, genetic drift, natural migration and recolonization processes, but also adaptation to local environments under Darwinian selection. As a result of these interacting processes, studies have showed that honeybee biodiversity can be subdivided into at least 26 subspecies which are geographically structured into four evolutionary lineages, covering Africa, Europe and Western Asia. The western European lineage (M lineage), which ranges from southern Iberia to Scandinavia and from the Atlantic coast to the Ural mountains, is the oldest lineage which colonized northern Europe about 1 million years ago. The M-lineage is composed of two honeybee subspecies: (i) the Iberian honeybee, Apis mellifera ib eriensis , and (ii) the black honeybee, A. m. mellifera.
Figure 2: Schematic overview of “BEEHOPE” for the set-up of a network of conservatories to preserve the genetic diversity of the M-lineage, and to promote and stimulate “sustainable beekeeping” in European beekeeping apiaries.
The main goal of BEEHOPE, our BioDIVERSA ERANET funded project, is to set up, according to a North/South gradient, genetic conservatories of native honeybee populations . BEEHOPE is divided into four work packages (WP): (i) impact study on the genetic background (heritage) of our colonies ; (ii) choice of our sites and establishment of preservation centers ; (iii) monitoring of eco-ethological and physiological parameters of a honeybee colony, and spatio-temporal monitoring of pathogens and predators (e.g.: small hive beetle); (iv) dynamic interactions with stakeholders involved in the beekeeping sector for the development of a sustainable beekeeping (Fig. 2).
This European network of honeybee preservation centers (530,93 km2 per preservation center) will have
as missions : (i) to characterize the genetic and eco-ethologic diversity of honeybees from the Western European lineage (M-lineage); (ii) to protect the genetic diversity of those populations ; (iii) to constitute a reserve of diversity usable by the honeybee industry and beekeepers ; (iv) to study the impact of the domesticated honeybee in the maintenance of local floristic diversity; and (v) to be able to use the honeybee as a bio-collector and as a biological indicator of environmental quality.
B) A)
Figure 1: Impact study based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDN A) diversity of ( A) French honeybee colonies (n=5257) in 2008, and of (B) Spanish and Portuguese colonies (n=711) in 2010.
Which solution ?
Sustainable or intensive beekeeping practices ?
Environmental Stressors
(e.g . malnutrition, exposure to agrochemicals and apicultural mismanagement, urbanization, climate change, habitat loss)
Endangered Honeybee lineages (focus on the M lineage , assumption : lower genetic diversity ) Parasitism G enetic diversity
and vitality
WP 01: Impact study Genetic background of bee colonies for each site
WP 02: Eco - Ethological survey 3 years for each site
WP03: Spatio - temporal dynamics of key parasites Varroa , virus, microsporodia , bacteria.
WP04: Sustainable beekeeping & conservation centers
( i ) Inform beekeepers about the advantages to breed honeybee ecotypes
(ii) Development of programs promoting the use of honeybee ecotypes in European apiaries to counter the honeybee decline, and reduce the risks of introduction of alien pests and pathogens (iii) Impact of climate change on adaptation of populations for 2 honeybee subspecies.
Setting up of Honeybee Conservation centers in Western Europe: an innovative strategy using sustainable beekeeping
. Climate changes Western honeybees -1,0E+09 0,0E+00 1,0E+09 2,0E+09 WP 1: Population genetics and genomics WP2: Eco-ethology WP3: Spatio-temporal evolution of pathogens WP4: Socio Economy Sustainable Beekeeping Network of BEEHOPES Preservation centers
