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Query: UMLS:C0042109 (urticaria)
 6,569 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

An apiary trial was conducted in 1997 in Sardinia, Italy, to verify the effectiveness of fluvalinate in polyvinyl chloride strips and flumethrin in polyethylene strips against Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans. Two indices to evaluate the efficacy of the treatments were adopted: percentage change in mite infestation of worker-sealed brood cells considering only treated hives and percentage change in mite mortality, and the natural variation in mite populations recorded in control hives during the trial. All acaricide treatments reduced the level of mite infestation of both sealed brood and adult bees. However, their effectiveness was slightly reduced in comparison to previous studies because of mite resistance phenomena. Portions of polyethylene strips of flumethrin from treated hives were sampled weekly to determine acaricide persistence using gas chromatography. After 4 wk, a slight reduction (approximately 9%) of the active ingredient content was observed. A laboratory bioassay also was performed to establish the resistance of adult female mites to fluvalinate. Mites were sampled from the experimental apiary and from various Sardinian apiaries which had primarily been subjected to fluvalinate applications in plastic strips or wood inserts for years. Mite resistance varied from 0 to 96%, depending on the acaricide management adopted. The lowest resistance level occurred in an apiary where pyrethroids had never been used, whereas the highest level occurred in an apiary, with intensive use of fluvalinate in wood inserts.
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PMID:Persistence and effectiveness of pyrethroids in plastic strips against Varroa jacobsoni (Acari: Varroidae) and mite resistance in a Mediterranean area. 1156 36

Varroa destructor is considered one of the major threats for worldwide apiculture. Damage caused by varroa mite includes body weight loss, malformation and weakening of the bees. It was also suggested as the main cause associated with colony winter mortality and as an important vector for several honey bee viruses. Little is known about multiple factors and their interaction affecting V. destructor prevalence in apiaries from South America. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors associated with V. destructor prevalence in east-central Argentina. Parasitic mite infestation level and colony strength measures were evaluated in 63 apiaries distributed in 4 different regions in east-central Argentina in a cross sectional study. Data regarding management practices in each apiary were collected by means of a questionnaire. A mixed-effects logistic regression model was constructed to associate management variables with the risk of achieving mite infestation higher than 3%. Colonies owned by beekeepers who indicated that they did not monitor colonies after mite treatment (OR=2.305; 95% CI: 0.944-5.629) nor disinfect hives woodenware material (OR=2.722; 95% CI: 1.380-5.565) were associated with an increased risk of presenting high intensity infestation with V. destructor (>3%). On the other hand, beekeepers who reported replacing more than 50% of the queens in their operation (OR=0.305; 95% CI: 0.107-0.872), feeding colonies protein substitute containing natural pollen (OR=0.348; 95% CI: 0.129-0.941) and feeding colonies High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) (OR=0.108; 95% CI: 0.032-0.364), had colonies that were less likely to have V. destructor infestations above 3%, than beekeepers who did not report using these management practices. Further research should be conducted considering that certain management practices were associated to mite infestation level in order to improve the sanitary condition in the colonies. Epidemiological studies provide key information to design surveillance programs against one the major threat to worldwide beekeeping.
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PMID:Risk factors associated with the presence of Varroa destructor in honey bee colonies from east-central Argentina. 2479 46

As key pollinators, honey bees are crucial to many natural and agricultural ecosystems. An important factor in the health of honey bees is the availability of diverse floral resources. However, in many parts of the world, high-intensity agriculture could result in a reduction in honey bee forage. Previous studies have investigated how the landscape surrounding honey bee hives affects some aspects of honey bee health, but to our knowledge there have been no investigations of the effects of intensively cultivated landscapes on indicators of individual bee health such as nutritional physiology and pathogen loads. Furthermore, agricultural landscapes in different regions vary greatly in forage and land management, indicating a need for additional information on the relationship between honey bee health and landscape cultivation. Here, we add to this growing body of information by investigating differences in nutritional physiology between honey bees kept in areas of comparatively low and high cultivation in an area generally high agricultural intensity in the Midwestern United States. We focused on bees collected directly before winter, because overwintering stress poses one of the most serious problems for honey bees in temperate climates. We found that honey bees kept in areas of lower cultivation exhibited higher lipid levels than those kept in areas of high cultivation, but this effect was observed only in colonies that were free of Varroa mites. Furthermore, we found that the presence of mites was associated with lower lipid levels and higher titers of deformed wing virus (DWV), as well as a non-significant trend towards higher overwinter losses. Overall, these results show that mite infestation interacts with landscape, obscuring the effects of landscape alone and suggesting that the benefits of improved foraging landscape could be lost without adequate control of mite infestations.
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PMID:Intensively Cultivated Landscape and Varroa Mite Infestation Are Associated with Reduced Honey Bee Nutritional State. 2707 Apr 22

The parasitic mite Varroa destructor, in interaction with different viruses, is the main cause of honey bee colony mortality in most parts of the world. Here we studied how effects of individual-level parasitization are reflected by the bee colony as a whole. We measured disease progression in an apiary of 24 hives with differing degree of mite infestation, and investigated its relationship to 28 biometrical, physiological and biochemical indicators. In early summer, when the most heavily infested colonies already showed reduced growth, an elevated ratio of brood to bees, as well as a strong presence of phenoloxidase/prophenoloxidase in hive bees were found to be predictors of the time of colony collapse. One month later, the learning performance of worker bees as well as the activity of glucose oxidase measured from head extracts were significantly linked to the timing of colony collapse. Colonies at the brink of collapse were characterized by reduced weight of winter bees and a strong increase in their relative body water content. Our data confirm the importance of the immune system, known from studies of individually-infested bees, for the pathogenesis of varroosis at colony level. However, they also show that single-bee effects cannot always be extrapolated to the colony as a whole. This fact, together with the prominent role of colony-level factors like the ratio between brood and bees for disease progression, stress the importance of the superorganismal dimension of Varroa research.
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PMID:Pathogenesis of varroosis at the level of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony. 2729 94

Varroa destructor mites pose an increasing global threat to the apicultural industry and agricultural ecology; however, the issue of whether certain environmental factors reflect the level of mite infection is far from resolved. Here, a wireless sensor network (WSN) system was used to examine how V. destructor, which has vital impacts on honeybee (Apis mellifera) health and survival, affects the temperature and humidity of honeybee hives in a field experiment. This approach may facilitate early identification of V. destructor in hives, and thus enable timely remedial action. Using quantitative PCR, we also evaluated the expression of two genes, adipokinetic hormone (AKH) and adipokinetic hormone receptor (AKHR).The results showed that temperature in highly infested broods was higher than that in broods with low infestation. Moreover, mite infection in honeybee colonies was positively correlated with temperature but negatively correlated with humidity (P < 0.05). Similar to previous observations, quantitative analysis suggested that the expression levels of AKH and AKHR from honeybees with low infection were significantly higher than those from bees with high infection (P < 0.01). These results showed that the expression levels of these genes in colonies with high mite infestation were closely associated with changes in hive temperature and humidity. This study demonstrates that Varroa infection not only causes changes in temperature inside honeybee colonies, but also affects the expression of honeybee energy metabolism genes.
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PMID:Effects of Varroa destructor on temperature and humidity conditions and expression of energy metabolism genes in infested honeybee colonies. 2770 87

Social insects have evolved colony behavioral, physiological, and organizational adaptations (social immunity) to reduce the risks of parasitization and/or disease transmission. The collection of resin from various plants and its use in the hive as propolis is a clear example of behavioral defense. For Apis mellifera, an increased propolis content in the hive may correspond to variations in the microbial load of the colony and to a downregulation of an individual bee's immune response. However, many aspects of such antimicrobial mechanism still need to be clarified. Assuming that bacterial and fungal infection mechanisms differ from the action of a parasite, we studied the resin collection dynamics in Varroa destructor-infested honeybee colonies. Comparative experiments involving hives with different mite infestation levels were conducted in order to assess the amount of resin collected and propolis quality within the hive, over a 2-year period (2014 and 2015). Our study demonstrates that when A. mellifera colonies are under stress because of Varroa infestation, an increase in the number of resin foragers is recorded, even if a general intensification of the foraging activity is not observed. A reduction in the total polyphenolic content in propolis produced in infested versus uninfested hives was also noticed. Considering that different propolis types show varying levels of inhibition against a variety of honey bee pathogens in vitro, it would be very important to study the effects against Varroa of two diverse types of propolis: from Varroa-free and from Varroa-infested hives.
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PMID:Resin foraging dynamics in Varroa destructor-infested hives: a case of medication of kin? 2879 24

Scabies, a mite infestation caused by 'Sarcoptes scabiei', most commonly presents as pruritic linear burrows where the mite has invaded the skin. Scabies variant such as bullous, crusted, hidden, incognito, nodular and scalp-mimic the other conditions. In addition, atypical presentations of scabies can masquerade as dermatitis herpetiformis, ecchymosis, Langerhans cell histiocytosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, urticaria, and urticaria pigmentosa. A 59-year-old male presented with non-pruritic papulosquamous plaques on his chest, abdomen, and back resembling lesions of pityriasis rosea in morphology and distribution. The complete cutaneous examination also demonstrated burrows on his finger webs. A mineral oil preparation of skin scrapings showed scabies mites, ova, and scybala. His infestation resolved after the treatment with topical permethrin 5% cream and oral ivermectin 15 mg on days one and eight. In conclusion, scabies surrepticius is a term that has recently been established to unify not only the numerous variants but also the atypical presentations of scabies. The inaccurate diagnosis of scabies infestation can lead to increased medical costs and the side effects of unnecessary tests and the treatment. Pityriasis rosea-like scabies can be added to the list of atypical presentations that are included under the unifying designation scabies surrepticius.
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PMID:Scabies Surrepticius: Scabies Masquerading as Pityriasis Rosea. 2949 50

Worldwide, the ecto-parasitic mite Varroa destructor has been assigned as an important driver of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony losses. Unlike the subspecies of European origin, the honey bees in some African countries such as Uganda and Ethiopia may not be as threatened or suffer less from mite-infestations. However, only little is known about the factors or traits that enable them to co-exist with the mite without beekeepers' intervention. Hence, this study was designed to investigate these factors or traits that limit the Varroa mite population in Ethiopian honey bees (Apis mellifera simensis). The study was conducted in the primary honey producing region of Ethiopia, i.e. Tigray. Mite infestation levels were shown to be lower in traditional hives (when compared to framed hives) and when colonies were started up from swarm catching (when compared to colony splitting). However, the influence of the comb cell size on mite infestation was not observed. With respect to the bee biology, the hygienic behavior was shown to be high (pin-test: 92.2% removal in 24 hours) and was negatively correlated with phoretic mite counts (Pearson; r = -0.79; P < 0.01) and mite infestation levels in brood (Pearson; r = -0.46; P < 0.001). Efforts to estimate the Varroa mite reproductive capacity were seriously hampered by an extremely low brood infestation level. From the 133 founder mites found (in 6727 capped brood cells) only 18.80% were capable of producing a reproductive progeny. Failure to produce adult male progeny was unexpectedly high (79.70%). We have suggested a few adaptations to the test protocols allowing to estimate the protective traits of honey bee colonies under very low Varroa pressure. Apart from that, this study demonstrates that the honey bees from Ethiopia are suitable targets to further decipher the genetic predisposition of resistance against V. destructor. It is still unclear to what extent simensis differs from the more common scutellata subspecies.
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PMID:Factors restraining the population growth of Varroa destructor in Ethiopian honey bees (Apis mellifera simensis). 3155 64

Honey bees are of great economic importance, not only for honey production but also for crop pollination. However, honey bee populations continue to decline mainly due to exposure to pesticides, pathogens and beekeeping practices. In this study, total soluble protein was measured, total RNA was extracted and first-strand cDNAs were generated. Quantitative PCR was used to assess the relative expression (transcript abundances) of immune function-related genes in honey bees collected from organically and conventionally managed hives. Honey bees collected from conventionally managed hives with 0% Varroa mite infestation levels displayed an upregulated expression of the prophenoloxidase gene (cellular defense). Similarly, honey bees collected from organically managed hives had increased levels of the vitellogenin gene (immune function and longevity). The gene expression for malvolio (sucrose responsiveness) was highest in organically managed hives with 0% Varroa mite infestations. Young adult bees collected from organically managed hives with 5% Varroa mite infestation levels had upregulated expressions of the gene spaetzle, whereas bees from similarly infested, conventionally managed hives did not, suggesting that honey bees from organically managed hives could mount an immune response. In young adult bees collected from organically managed hives only, the expression of the immune deficiency gene (antimicrobial defense) was upregulated. The relative gene expression for superoxide dismutase 1 increased in young adult bees collected from hives with 5% Varroa mite infestation levels as expected. However, for superoxide dismutase 2, there was a high level of gene expression in adult bees from both conventionally managed hives with 0% Varroa mite infestation levels and organically managed hives with 5% Varroa mite infestations. The gene CYP9Q3 (pesticide detoxification) that metabolizes coumaphos and fluvalinate was upregulated in adult bees collected from organically managed bees. Overall, these findings provide useful insights into the genetic response of honey bees to some environmental stressors and could be an important component of best beekeeping practices that intend to enhance honey bee health.
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PMID:Molecular Assessment of Genes Linked to Immune Response Traits of Honey Bees in Conventional and Organically Managed Apiaries. 3295 31