Laura Zavatta

University of Bologna | UNIBO · Department of Agri-Food Sciences and Technologies

BACKGROUND The yellow‐legged hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) is a predatory species native to South‐East Asia. The hornet is invasive in Europe, spreading to several countries and becoming a pest for Apis mellifera due to its behaviour of preying in front of apiaries. The aim of this study was (i) to investigate the presence of honey bee pathog...

Nectar composition is an important driver of insect attractiveness. Although bumblebees prefer sucrose-rich nectar, they were found to be the main pollinators of Gentiana lutea, whose nectar is low on sucrose. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that bumblebees are attracted to the amino acids proline and β-alanine, which are both naturally occurri...

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...

The interspecific transmission of pathogens can occur frequently in the environment. Among wild bees, the main spillover cases are caused by pathogens associated with Apis mellifera, whose colonies can act as reservoirs. Due to the limited availability of data in Italy, it is challenging to accurately assess the impact and implications of this phen...

Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV), and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) usually persist as covert infections in honey bee colonies. They can cause rapid bee mortality in cases of severe infection, often associated with high Varroa destructor infestation, by which they are transmitted. In various countries, these viruses...

The phenomenon of antibiotic resistance stands as a paramount health challenge in the contemporary era. Within a One Health approach, it becomes crucial to effectively track the dissemination of antibiotic resistance, not only within humans and animals but also within the environment. To investigate the environment, the honey bee (Apis mellifera) h...

Pollinators are vitally important for the maintenance of ecosystems and the reproduction of most spontaneous and cultivated plants. However, in the last decades, they are suffering from an alarming decline, with the spread of pathogens and parasites being one of the main causes. Apis mellifera L. is the best-studied pollinator, and several studies...

The recent decades witnessed the collapse of honey bee colonies at a global level. The major drivers of this collapse include both individual and synergic pathogen actions, threatening the colonies’ survival. The need to define the epidemiological pattern of the pathogens that are involved has led to the establishment of monitoring programs in many...

Diseases contribute to the decline of pollinator populations, which may be aggravated by the interspecific transmission of honey bee pests and pathogens. Flowers increase the risk of transmission, as they expose the pollinators to infections during the foraging activity. In this study, both the prevalence and abundance of 21 honey bee pathogens (11...

The giant resin bee, Megachile sculpturalis (Megachilidae), is a species alien to Europe that easily adopts bee hotels in city gardens. In Italy, we are carrying out a monitoring project at CREA bee hotel. Starting in 2016, we monitored emergence and defined nest structure and pollen; estimated the number of nests completed by each female, and reco...

Animal species success is linked to a combination of suitable ecological conditions coupled with behavioural plasticity. The latter is certainly a key element especially for the spread of alien species. Megachile sculpturalis is an East-Asian solitary bee accidentally introduced in France that quickly spread in many European countries. While numero...

The microsporidian fungus Nosema ceranae represents one of the primary bee infection threats worldwide and the antibiotic fumagillin is the only registered product for nosemosis disease control, while few alternatives are, at present, available. Natural bioactive compounds deriving from the glucosinolate–myrosinase system (GSL–MYR) in Brassicaceae...

Bees play a key role in natural and agro-ecosystems and their diversity is worldwide threatened by anthropogenic causes. Despite this, there is little awareness of the existence of the numerous species of wild bees, and the common name “bee” is very often exclusively associated with Apis mellifera. Our aim was to create a citizen science project in...

The deformed wing virus (DWV) is one of the most common honey bee pathogens. The virus may also be detected in other insect species, including Bombus terrestris adults from wild and managed colonies. In this study, individuals of all stages, castes, and sexes were sampled from three commercial colonies exhibiting the presence of deformed workers an...

In the present study on the bumblebee Bombus terrestris, we investigated the influence of inbreeding on queen fitness by comparing diapause survival and egg‐laying success of queens mated with nestmate and non‐nestmate males. We then compared the early stage of colonies with or without diploid males and analysed colony characteristics to identify a...

Inbreeding is caused by the mating of closely related individuals and may produce a decrease in the fitness of offspring and have deleterious consequences for adults. In haplodiploid social Hymenoptera inbreeding has a further negative effect due to the production of unviable or sterile diploid males. As a consequence, mechanisms of inbreeding avoi...

In many species, inbreeding avoidance mechanisms prevent mating between close relatives, but these mechanisms are poorly studied in bumble bees. The probability of inbred matings within a colony in eusocial insects may depend on the timing of gyne and male emergence and on their sex ratio. In this study, we compared the development of 35 colonies o...