Franco Mutinelli

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie | IZSVe · SCS3 - Diagnostic Services Histopathology and Parasitology

Traceability is a cornerstone of sustainable honey production and consumption. Honey fraud and a lack of traceability have been recently highlighted by the European Commission. Innovative systems aimed at guaranteeing food safety ’from farm to fork’ and improved controls are highly recommended. Within the framework of the BPRACTICES project, part o...

Companion animals, especially dogs and cats, have increasingly been recognized as moral subjects and valued as family members by European citizens. This new role encourages policy makers to face the many companion animals’ welfare issues not yet covered by the EU legislation. The main gaps in the protection of dog and cat welfare during their all l...

Oral melanoma (OM) is the most common malignant oral tumour among dogs and shares similarities with human mucosal melanoma (HMM), validating the role of canine species as an immunocompetent model for cancer research. In both humans and dogs, the prognosis is poor and radiotherapy (RT) represents a cornerstone in the management of this tumour, eithe...

Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) is a Apis mellifera viral infectious disease, exhibiting dark and hairless abdomen in workers with tremors and ataxita. Clinical signs are also typically linked to adverse weather conditions and overcrowding in the hive. The disease occurs in spring but recently it has been observed cases increase and seasonality...

American foulbrood is an infectious disease of the honeybee brood that causes multiple types of damage to beekeeping. The causative agent of the disease is the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, which forms resistant infective spores and is viable for decades. After the eradication measures have been implemented, in cases of clinically visible disease...

Articolo completo in italiano su Politiche Sanitarie https://www.politichesanitarie.it/archivio/4257/articoli/42339/ This paper briefly reports the results of a PhD project aimed at understanding the integration of traditional welfare services with the innovative approaches of social farming and animal assisted interventions. These new approaches...

Simple Summary A particular type of human-dog interaction is established in dog-assisted interventions (DAIs). This interaction is based on strong human-animal cooperation and the possibility of mutual benefit during the intervention and involves complex dynamics and multisensory channel communication. The issue of measuring human-dog interaction i...

In recent years, honey bee colony losses in the Republic of Kosovo remained largely unknown. From 2019 to 2021, 81 apiaries with different disease suspicions were investigated in the framework of honey bee disease passive surveillance. Fifty-nine of the eighty-one apiaries were tested for Vairimorpha ceranae, Vairimorpha apis, trypanosomatids Lotma...

In recent years, honey bee colony losses in the Republic of Kosovo remained largely unknown. From 2019 to 2021, 81 apiaries with different disease suspicions were investigated in the framework of honey bee disease passive surveillance. Fifty-nine of the eighty-one apiaries were tested for Vairimorpha ceranae, Vairimorpha apis, trypanosomatids Lotma...

Animal Welfare Bodies (AWBs) Italian Platform. Consensus Documents, Guidelines, Questionnaires, Developed by the National Representatives of the Bodies Responsible for Animal Welfare. The ethical and methodological aspects of experimental biomedical research are crucial when it comes to the welfare of animals used for scientific purposes. The nat...

In recent years, the attention paid to farmed honeybees has considerably increased based on new and different threats posed to this sector, i [...]

Background Oriental hornets are large predatory hymenoptera that occur in the southern part of Asia and the southeastern Mediterranean. Among many pests of bee colonies, Vespa orientalis was recorded to be one of the most destructive. Objectives The aim of this study was to: (1) monitor the presence of pathogens carried by V. orientalis that could...

Report del convegno ECM svoltosi il 10 maggio 2023 consultabile liberamente al link https://www.izsvenezie.it/multifunzionalita-agricoltura-welfare-report/

This article presents managed honey bee colony loss rates over winter 2019/20 resulting from using the standardised COLOSS questionnaire in 37 countries. Six countries were from outside Europe, including, for the first time in this series of articles, New Zealand. The 30,491 beekeepers outside New Zealand reported 4.5% of colonies with unsolvable q...

Recognizing animal emotions is critical to their welfare and can lead to a better relationship with humans and the environment, especially in a widespread species like the donkey, which is often prone to welfare issues. This study aims to assess the emotional response of donkeys through an operant conditioning task with two presumed different emoti...

Report riassuntivo dei risultati emersi dallo Scenario Workshop realizzato presso l'Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie in data 11 Gennaio 2023 a cui hanno partecipato stakeholder della Regione Veneto. L'attività è stata svolta nell'ambito del progetto di dottorato elaborato dal Centro di Referenza Nazionale per gli Interventi assis...

Simple Summary Traditional and emerging topics bridging insects and public health are described because insects affect human and animal health. Addressing public health professionals, this paper aims to (i) outline and enforce the role of public health authorities in different sectors involving insects, health, food and feed, (ii) improve the reari...

Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) are commonly used physiological measuresin animals. While several studies exist on horse HRV, less information is available for donkeys. Thisscoping review aims to understand the extent and type of published evidence on donkey HRand HRV, their clinical and research applications, the devices used, and...

The Italian beekeeping industry has grown steadily during the last decade, according to data from the national beekeeping registry, which came into existence in February 2015. Winter colony losses remain a matter of concern for beekeepers in Italy, and administration of the questionnaire defined by the Coloss Association could contribute to a bette...

Honey is a natural product that is in great demand and has a relatively high price, thus making it one of the most common targets of economically motivated adulteration. Its adulteration can be obtained by adding cheaper honey or sugar syrups or by overfeeding honeybees with sugar syrups. Adulteration techniques are constantly evolving and advanced...

The present is a study of the data collected through an online survey which investigated satisfaction of Italian cat-caretakers with their pet, considering health and behavioural complaints. The survey was advertised using social media and a virtual snowball sampling method was applied. The questionnaire collected information about caretaker’s demo...

Animal health is a prerequisite for global health, economic development, food security, food quality, and poverty reduction, while mitigating against climate change and biodiversity loss. We did a qualitative review of 53 infectious diseases in terrestrial animals with data from DISCONTOOLS, a specialist database and prioritisation model focusing o...

How much a dog is perceived as reliable by their caretaker is an important feature of the relationship, being deemed especially important e.g., for dogs involved in animal-assisted interventions (Filugelli et al., 2021). The present study aimed at investigating possible predictors of the reliability score caretakers assigned to their dogs.

Donkeys are gaining a prominent role in the field of animal assisted interventions (AAIs) as they are the third most involved species in Italy and one of the five species endorsed by the Italian Guidelines for the implementation of animal assisted therapy and educational projects. Their involvement in the AAI setting implies the necessity of unders...

Despite donkeys being involved in various activities with humans, their cognitive and learning abilities are still little known. A deeper understanding of their perceptive, cognitive and learning processes is, thus, necessary to preserve their well-being and establish a good human-animal bond. An operant conditioning task was applied to explore don...

In the European framework of multifunctional agriculture, Social Farming (SF) has constantly been spreading. In Italy, these practices are legally connected to Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI), creating new perspectives and challenges for farmers and their territories. In this paper, we report the results of a pilot study conducted in the Veneto...

Beekeepers have various options to control the parasitic mite Varroa destructor in honey bee colonies, but no empirical data are available on the methods they apply in practice. We surveyed 28,409 beekeepers maintaining 507,641 colonies in 30 European countries concerning Varroa control methods. The set of 19 different Varroa diagnosis and control...

The balance of the gut microbiome is important for the honey bee’s growth and development, immune function and defense against pathogens. The use of a beneficial bacteria-based strategy for the prevention and biocontrol of American foulbrood (AFB) and European foulbrood (EFB) diseases in honey bees offers interesting prospects. Lactic acid bacteria...

Prion protein (PRNP) gene polymorphisms are responsible for susceptibility to Scrapie, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting sheep and goats. As a result, different genotypes were established based on the combination of polymorphic codons and a classification into risk groups of susceptibility (R1-R5) of alleles and genotypes was draw...

A progressive honey bee population decline has been reported worldwide during the last decades, and it could be attributed to several causes, in particular to the presence of pathogens and parasites that can act individually or in synergy. The health status of nine apiaries located in different areas of the Veneto region (northeast of Italy) was as...

Two analytical methods for the quantification of pyrrolizidine (PAs) and tropane alkaloids (TAs) in honey bee‐collected pollen, teas and herbal infusions have been in‐house validated using the UHPLC‐MS/MS technique. These methods showed good linearity, good accuracy and robustness. The methods have been applied to a preliminary investigation of for...

Citation: Qadir, Z.A.; Idrees, A.; Mahmood, R.; Sarwar, G.; Bakar, M.A.; Ahmad, S.; Raza, M.M.; Li, J. Effectiveness of Different Soft Acaricides against Honey Bee Ectoparasitic Mite Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae). Insects 2021, 12, Simple Summary: Over the past few decades, the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor has been a significant thre...

Edible insects are expected to become an important nutrient source for animals and humans in the Western world in the near future. Only a few studies on viruses in edible insects with potential for industrial rearing have been published and concern only some edible insect species. Viral pathogens that can infect insects could be non-pathogenic, or...

The small hive beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida was first detected in the Calabria and Sicily region (Southern Italy) in 2014. In this regard, a more effective and faster inspection method than the Official one (Ministry of Health) was tested to detect the beetle in the hive. In collaboration with Calabria beekeepers’ association, a “mobile divider”-ba...

Despite their diffusion worldwide, many aspects of donkeys’ behaviour and cognitive abilities are still poorly understood and overshadowed by a corpus of commonplaces. The possibility of better knowing this species is of key relevance for its wellbeing and to establish a good human-donkey relationship. This review aims to investigate scientific lit...

VarroMed® is a soft acaricide registered for honey bees on the European Union market since 2017 for Varroa control. Researchers involved were partners of different countries of the Varroa control task force of the COLOSS Association. Our goal was to evaluate performances (acaricide efficacy and toxic effects on honey bees) of VarroMed® in different...

Green Care (GC) and Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI) are recognised practices useful to enhance the wellbeing of people through interaction with nature and animals. This study aims at understanding the interconnections between GC and AAI by analysing deeply which interaction with animals is conducted. Therefore, we carried out a literature searc...

Given the consolidated circulation of Aethina tumida (SHB) in Reggio Calabria and Vibo Valentia provinces of Calabria region (Southern Italy), the need for a more effective and less time-consuming approach to SHB surveillance emerged. Accordingly, honeybee sentinel colonies were established in the infested areas under the supervision and management...

VarroMed® is a soft acaricide registered for honey bees on the European Union market since 2017 for Varroa control. Researchers involved were partners of different countries of the Varroa control task force of COLOSS Association. Our goal was to evaluate performances (acaricide efficacy and toxic effects on honey bees) of VarroMed® in different cli...

Member states of the European Union are required to ensure the initiation of monitoring programs to verify honey bee exposure to pesticides, where and as appropriate. Based on 620 samples of dead honey bees—42 of pollen, 183 of honey and 32 of vegetables—we highlighted the presence, as analyzed by liquid and gas chromatography coupled with tandem m...

VarroMed® is a soft acaricide registered for honey bees on the European Union market since 2017 for Varroa control. Researchers involved were partners of different countries of the Varroa control task force of COLOSS Association. Our goal was to evaluate performances (acaricide efficacy and toxic effects on honey bees) of VarroMed® in different cli...

Human exposure to nano- and microplastics (NMPs) has raised major societal concerns, yet no framework to assess the risks of NMPs for human health exists. A substantial proportion of plastic produced worldwide is not properly disposed and persists in the environment for decades while degrading. Plastic degradation generates a size continuum of frag...

Honey bee mating is difficult to control as it occurs in flight, several kilometers away from the hive of origin of both queens and drones. In recent years, there has been an increase in the introduction into Italy of queen bees and swarms originating from interracial crossings (especially those known as “Buckfast”), or belonging to non-native subs...

Euthanasia derives from the Greek terms eu meaning good and thanatos meaning death. The term is used to describe ending the life of an individual animal in a way that minimizes or eliminates pain and distress. When animals are affected by a disease that produces insurmountable suffering or can affect other animal and human individuals or population...

Background Leukoreduction is a routine procedure in human transfusion medicine but is uncommon in veterinary. Objectives To evaluate the effect of leukoreduction on the quality of canine whole blood (WB) and blood products during storage. Animals Ten canine blood donors. Methods This is a case series study. An amount of 450 mL of blood was colle...

Bee products have been used since ancient times both for their nutritional value and for a broad spectrum of therapeutic purposes. They are deemed to be a potential source of natural antioxidants that can counteract the effects of oxidative stress underlying the pathogenesis of many diseases. In view of the growing interest in using bioactive subst...

This article presents managed honey bee colony loss rates over winter 2018/19 resulting from using the standardised COLOSS questionnaire in 35 countries (31 in Europe). In total, 28,629 beekeepers supplying valid loss data wintered 738,233 colonies, and reported 29,912 (4.1%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.0–4.1%) colonies with unsolvable queen pro...

According to Directive 2010/63/EU, project proposals involving experiments on animals must be favourably evaluated by the local Animal Welfare Body ( AWB ) before submission for approval to the central competent authority, i.e., the Ministry of Health in the case of Italy. Here the working experience of the AWB established in one Italian veterinary...

Scrapie is an ovine transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, and its susceptibility is associated with polymorphisms in the prion protein gene (PRNP). Genetic selection is currently the most effective mean for eradication of the susceptible VRQ allele in favour of resistant ARR allele. Maintenance of genetic diversity should be one of the major obj...

Honeybee health can be compromised not only by infectious and infesting diseases, but also by the acute or chronic action of certain pesticides. In recent years, there have been numerous reports of colony mortality by Italian beekeepers, but the investigations of these losses have been inconsistent, both in relation to the type of personnel involve...

In this research, some Algerian honey samples were collected from various geographical and botanical origins, and analyzed by LC/MS method for determination of pyrrolyzidine alkaloids. The study of 46 samples revealed the presence of PA in the honeys tested and that some contained high concentrations of this substance. 74% contained PAs with a tota...

In this research, some Algerian honey samples were collected from various geographical and botanical origins, and analyzed by LC/MS method for determination of pyrrolyzidine alkaloids. The study of 46 samples revealed the presence of PA in the honeys tested and that some contained high concentrations of this substance. 74% contained PAs with a tota...

Vespa velutina Lepeletier, 1836 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), the yellow-legged hornet, is a social wasp native to North of India, China and tropical and subtropical areas of Southeast Asia. Adults are predators of a wide variety of arthropods, including honey bees. Vespa velutina has been unintentionally introduced in southwestern France before 2004 an...

Information concerning the pathogenic role of honey bee viruses in invasive species are still scarce. The aim of this investigation was to assess the presence of several honey bee viruses, such as Black Queen Cell Virus (BQCV), Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV), Slow Paralysis Virus (SPV), Sac Brood Virus (SBV), Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), Acute Be...

This short article presents loss rates of honey bee colonies over winter 2017/18 from 36 countries, including 33 in Europe, from data collected using the standardized COLOSS questionnaire. The 25,363 beekeepers supplying data passing consistency checks in total wintered 544,879 colonies, and reported 26,379 (4.8%, 95% CI 4.7–5.0%) colonies with uns...

Small hive beetles (SHBs) are parasites of social bee colonies endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and have become a widespread invasive species. In the new ranges, SHBs can cause damage to apiculture and wild bees. Although the further spread seems inevitable, eradication of new introductions and containment of established ones are nevertheless urgently...

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The Venice Lagoon is an interesting example of an ecosystem suffering for a considerable anthropogenic impact, resulting in high concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in lagoon sediments and seafood. In this context, biomonitoring is a crucially important task. The present study aimed at evaluating the validity of a multiple biomar...

Due to its multifunctional and complex role in the honey bee colony functioning and health (construction material allowing food storage, brood rearing, thermoregulation, mediation in chemical and mechanical communication, substrate for pathogens, toxins and waste), Apis mellifera beeswax has been widely studied over the last five decades. This is s...

The health status of the honey bee populations has attracted a great amount of interest in recent years. We investigated honey bee health in five natural protected areas in Italy from October 2009 to December 2010. Areas were selected to represent a wide range of bio‑geographical zones including alpine, continental, and Mediterranean. Within each o...

Small hive beetles (SHBs) are parasites of social bee colonies endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and have become a widespread invasive species. In the new ranges, SHBs can cause damage to apiculture and wild bees. Although the further spread seems inevitable , eradication of new introductions and containment of established ones are nevertheless urgentl...

The wide geographical distribution and genetic diversity of bat-associated lyssaviruses (LYSVs) across Europe suggest that similar viruses may also be harboured in Italian insectivorous bats. Indeed, bats were first included within the passive national surveillance programme for rabies in wildlife in the 1980s, while active surveillance has been pe...

Honey bees are pollinators that play a key-role in plant biodiversity conservation and crop production. This unique insect species has been managed in hives by beekeepers for millennia, even though such a peculiar animal production system never resulted in the domestication of the western honey bee. The western honey bee was originally distributed...

The illegal use of glucocorticoids (GCs) as growth-promoters (GPs) is prohibited in farm animals in the European Union because the strong pharmacological activity of most synthetic GCs produces residues that are dangerous for human consumption. Among the alternative methods proposed to increase the efficacy of official controls, histology was the t...

The study evaluates the efficacy and effects of two organic acid-based miticides (Maqs® and Api-Bioxal®) used in late summer to reduce the population of Varroa destructor mites in colonies of Apis mellifera ligustica. The study took place in Albaredo d’Adige (Verona, Northeastern Italy). Twenty-six honey bee colonies, divided into four groups, were...

Honey is a natural product with an excellent nutritional value and healing properties. The limited availability and high price of honey contribute to and encourage the illegal practice of adulterating honey. The most frequently used methods for honey adulteration are the direct addition of sugar syrups and the overfeeding of bees with excessive amo...