Pierre Giovenazzo

Université Laval | ULAVAL · Department of Biology

Honey bee viruses are serious pathogens that can cause poor colony health and productivity. We analyzed a multi-year longitudinal dataset of abundances of nine honey bee viruses (deformed wing virus A, deformed wing virus B, black queen cell virus, sacbrood virus, Lake Sinai virus, Kashmir bee virus, acute bee paralysis virus, chronic bee paralysis...

Improving our understanding of how climate influences honey bee parasites and pathogens is critical as weather patterns continue to shift under climate change. While the prevalence of diseases vary according to regional and seasonal patterns, the influence of specific climatic predictors has rarely been formally assessed. To address this gap, we an...

Pesticides are causing honeybee mortality worldwide. Research carried out on honeybees indicates that application of pesticides has a significant impact on the core gut community, which ultimately leads to an increase in the growth of harmful pathogens. Disturbances caused by pesticides also affect the way bacterial members interact, which results...

Recent declines in the health of honey bee colonies used for crop pollination pose a considerable threat to global food security. Foraging by honey bee workers represents the primary route of exposure to a plethora of toxins and pathogens known to affect bee health, but it remains unclear how foraging preferences impact colony-level patterns of str...

We present a one-year-long multi-sensor dataset collected from honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera) with rich phenotypic measurements. Data were collected non-stop from April 2020 to April 2021 from 53 hives located at two apiaries in Québec, Canada. The sensor data included audio features, temperature, and relative humidity. The phenotypic measurem...

The present study investigated the impact of filtration, creaming and pasteurization on the authentication of the botanical origin of honey using the dilute-and-shoot method in liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The analytical method performances were satisfactory (analyte recoveries ranging from 95 % to 103 % and inter-day...

Improving our understanding of how climate influences honey bee parasites and pathogens is critical as weather patterns continue to shift under climate change. While the prevalence of diseases vary according to regional and seasonal patterns, the influence of specific climatic predictors has rarely been formally assessed. To address this gap, we an...

Against a backdrop of declining bee colony health, this study aims to gain a better understanding of the impact of an antimicrobial (Fumidil B®, Can-Vet Animal Health Supplies Ltd., Guelph, ON, Canada) and a probiotic (Bactocell®, Lallemand Inc., Montreal, QC, Canada) on bees’ microbiota and the health of their colonies after wintering. Therefore,...

In this paper, we present a multimodal dataset obtained from a honey bee colony in Montr\'eal, Quebec, Canada, spanning the years of 2021 to 2022. This apiary comprised 10 beehives, with microphones recording more than 2000 hours of high quality raw audio, and also sensors capturing temperature, and humidity. Periodic hive inspections involved moni...

Despite the use of various integrated pest management strategies to control the honey bee mite, Varroa destructor, varroosis remains the most important threat to honey bee colony health in many countries. In Canada, ineffective varroa control is linked to high winter colony losses and new treatment options, such as a summer treatment, are greatly n...

Also available for direct free download until June 6th, 2024: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1ixih3QW8S6EBM

Table S2. Relationships between paired stressors from the literature compared to those detected in our study, related to Figure 1. Relevant biotic stressors are paired with a second stressor that includes parasites, pathogens, and pesticides. The raw data from our study were used to calculate non-normal Kendall’s tau correlation coefficients (τ) an...

Highbush blueberry pollination depends on managed honey bees ( Apis mellifera ) for adequate fruit set; however, beekeepers have raised concerns about poor health of colonies after pollinating this crop. Postulated causes include agrochemical exposure, nutritional deficits, and interactions with parasites and pathogens, particularly Melisococcus pl...

Background The mutualistic interaction between entomophilous plants and pollinators is fundamental to the structure of most terrestrial ecosystems. The sensitive nature of this relationship has been disrupted by anthropogenic modifications to natural landscapes, warranting development of new methods for exploring this trophic interaction. Character...

Honey bees are essential pollinators for several economically important crops. In temperate countries, honey bee colonies face multiple threats during the overwintering period, such as food availability, diseases, and confinement. Beekeepers commonly use chemicals to improve colony health during winter, but these products can have a negative impact...

The honeybee is an important species for the agri-food and pharmaceutical industries through bee products and crop pollination services. However, honeybee health is a major concern, because beekeepers in many countries are experiencing significant colony losses. This phenomenon has been linked to the exposure of bees to multiple stresses in their e...

Urbanization and agricultural intensification continue to reshape landscapes, altering the habitat available to wildlife and threatening species of both economic and conservation concern. The honey bee, Apis mellifera, is a pollinator of economic importance to North American agriculture yet managed colonies are burdened by poor health and high annu...

The genetic selection of honey bees (Apis mellifera) possessing specific social hygienic behaviors offers the beekeeping industry the possibility of controlling the Varroa destructor parasite and thus reducing its dependence on acaricides. However, the links between these behavioral traits are not yet well defined, which limits genetic progress in...

Controlling mating in the honeybee (Apis mellifera) is part of one of the greatest challenges for the beekeeping industry’s genetic selection programs due to specific characteristics of their reproduction. Several techniques for supervising honeybee mating with relative effective control have been developed over the years to allow honeybee selectio...

The vital role of honeybees in pollination and their high rate of mortality in the last decade have raised concern among beekeepers and researchers alike. As such, robust and remote sensing of beehives has emerged as a potential tool to help monitor the health of honeybees. Over the last decade, several monitoring systems have been proposed, includ...

Spring imports of queen honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are essential to replace winter colony losses in Canada, but contribute to the spread of treatment-resistant strains of pathogens and undesirable genetic traits. A possible alternative to these imports is the mass storage of queens during winter. By overwintering a strong colony (queen bank) co...

Bees play an important role in agriculture and ecology, and their pollination efficiency is essential to the economic profitability of farms. The drastic decrease in bee populations witnessed over the last decade has attracted great attention to automated remote beehive monitoring research, with beehive acoustics analysis emerging as a prominent fi...

Including probiotics in honeybee nutrition represents a promising solution for mitigating diseases, and recent evidence suggests that various microbes possess mechanisms that can bioremediate environmental pollutants. Thus, the use of probiotics capable of degrading pesticides used in modern agriculture would help to both reduce colony losses due t...

Many pathogens and parasites have evolved to overwhelm and suppress their host’s immune system. Nevertheless, the interactive effects of these agents on colony productivity and wintering success have been relatively unexplored, particularly in large-scale phenomic studies. As a defense mechanism, honey bees have evolved remarkable social behaviors...

Pesticides are increasing honeybee (Apis mellifera) death rates globally. Clothianidin neonicotinoid appears to impair the microbe-immunity axis. We conducted cage experiments on newly emerged bees that were 4-6 days old and used a 16S rRNA metataxonomic approach to measure the impact of three sublethal clothianidin concentrations (0.1, 1 and 10 pp...

Honeybees have been used in Europe as environmental bioindicators for heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). However, their potential has been little explored in North America, especially between environments which have similar pollution levels. Many urban residents and stakeholders are concerned with air quality, mainly in regar...

Genetic improvement programs have resulted in spectacular productivity gains for most animal species in recent years. The introduction of quantitative genetics and the use of statistical models have played a fundamental role in achieving these advances. For the honeybee (Apis mellifera), genetic improvement programs are still rare worldwide. Indeed...

The production of young, mated honeybee queens (Apis mellifera) is essential to replace dead queens or to start new colonies after wintering. Mass storage of mated honeybee queens during winter and their use the following spring is an interesting strategy that could help fulfill this need. In this study, we investigated the survival, fertility, and...

Background Honeybees ( Apis mellifera ) are facing a number of interacting stress factors affecting their general health as well as their nervous and immune systems. Recent evidence proposed the clothianidin neonicotinoid as a potential disrupting factor for the microbiota-immunity axis. In this research, we conducted in vivo experiments to measure...

Genetic selection has led to spectacular advances in animal production in many domestic species. However, it is still little applied to honey bees (Apis mellifera), whose complex genetic and reproductive characteristics are a challenge to model statistically. Advances in informatics now enable creation of a statistical model consistent with honey b...

Microbial symbionts inhabiting the honeybee gut (i.e., gut microbiota) are essential for food digestion, immunity, and gut protection of their host. The taxonomic composition of the gut microbiota is dynamic throughout the honeybee life cycle and the foraging season. However, it remains unclear how drastic changes occurring in winter, such as food...

The growth of the commercial pollination industry raises important concerns regarding honey bee ( Apis mellifera Linnaeus; Hymenoptera: Apidae) health and development. While providing such services, honey bees are often exposed to undiversified pollen sources that may contribute to nutritional deficiencies, notably in protein and amino acids. To un...

The fertility and fecundity of the queen are vital to the success of a honey bee colony (Apis mellifera L.). Young mated queens are shipped worldwide to meet the demand of the beekeeping industry. Since little is known about the conditions experienced by queens in transit from breeders to beekeepers and the importance of these conditions on the que...

Commercial lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) and cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) crops benefit from the presence of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) for pollination. Unfortunately, beekeepers are observing negative impacts of pollination services on honey bee colonies. In this study, we investigated three beekeeping management st...

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are pollinators of major importance for crop production. In recent years, colony management has become more difficult due to multiple problems such as pesticide exposure, exotic parasites, pathogens and nutritional deficiencies. The latter has incited beekeepers to provide protein supplements to their colonies to make...

The ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman is a major pest of the honey bee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and its control is one of the most important challenges that beekeepers have to face. In this study, we investigated the use of the predatory mite Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Womersley) for the biological control of varr...

The biocontrol of the honey bee ectoparasite Varroa destructor is an underexploited but promising avenue that would benefit from being integrated in a Varroa management program. Our study aimed to investigate the potential of the predatory mite Stratiolaelaps scimitus to control Varroa infestations in honey bees. Tests on safety and predation were...

Inoculation of a honey bee hive with Stratiolaelaps scimitus. (JPG)

Paired comparison of the status of honey bee brood (larvae and pupae) between treated and control groups. (DOCX)

Data on S. scimitus prey preference. (CSV)

Data from our in vivo predation test. (CSV)

Additional monitoring using observation hives. (DOCX)

Information file for S1, S2, S3 and S4 Datasets. (DOCX)

Data from our in vitro predation test. (CSV)

Data on S. scimitus predation of phoretic Varroa mites. (CSV)

In order to investigate the potential of predatory mites to control Varroa infestations in honey bees, it is important to assess the risk of predation of the honey bee brood by the predators under realistic conditions (i.e. within the honey bee colony). Here, we provide a protocol to evaluate this risk of brood predation by the soil-dwelling predat...

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are facing multiple stressors affecting their lifespan, health and productivity. Among them, Nosema ceranae is an intracellular microsporidian parasite, which plays a major impact on honey bees colonies. However, both efficiency and innocuity of current treatment against N. ceranae are being questioned, thus raising the...

In Canada, there is a growing need for additional honey bee colonies to satisfy the demand for pollination services and compensate for high winter colony mortality. The objective of our study was to compare methodologies that would be both better structured and adapted to producing new colonies in today’s beekeeping industry. Efficacy of three colo...

Preservation of honey bee (Apis mellifera L., Hymenoptera: Apidae) sperm, coupled with instrumental insemination, is an effective strategy to protect the species and their genetic diversity. Our overall objective is to develop a method of drone semen preservation; therefore, two experiments were conducted. Hypothesis 1 was that cryopreservation (-1...

Supplemental feeding of honey bee (Apis mellifera L., Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies in spring is essential for colony buildup in northern apicultural regions. The impact of pollen and syrup feeding on drone production and sperm quality is not well-documented, but may improve fecundation of early-bred queens. We measured the impact of feeding sucros...

Hygienic behavior is a complex, genetically-based quantitative trait that serves as a key defense mechanism against parasites and diseases in Apis mellifera. Yet, the genomic basis and functional pathways involved in the initiation of this behavior are still unclear. Deciphering the genomic basis of hygienic behavior is a prerequisite to developing...

A honey bee ( Apis mellifera Linnaeus; Hymenoptera: Apidae) queen’s life expectancy is strongly dependent on the number of sperm she obtains by mating with drones during nuptial flights. Unexplained replacement of queens by the colony and young queens showing sperm depletions have been reported in North America, and reduced drone fertility has been...

The pupal development of Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) was studied at various combinations of thermo-hygrometric soil conditions (temperatures of 16, 18, and 20 degrees C and soil water content levels of 0.37, 0.56, and 0.73 m3 water per cubic meter of dry soil) representative of southeastern Canada. Survivorship and development d...

The small hive beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), is a non-native pest of honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae)) newly introduced to Canada. The effectiveness of three in-hive traps was tested in springtime in West-Montérégie (southern Québec, Canada) and in late summer in Essex County (southern Ontar...

Current sampling methods for identification of honeybee microsporidians (Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae) involve killing adult honeybees. The current study monitored the presence of N. apis and N. ceranae in honeybee frass and bottom scraps collected from six hives located in Deschambault, Quebec, Canada, from 2009 to 2010. Infection rates of N. ce...

Nosemosis is a disease of adult honey bees, Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae), caused by two described species of Microsporidia: Nosema ceranae Fries and Nosema apis Zander. The epidemiology of N. apis is well understood; however, little is known about N. ceranae in Canadian apiaries. The following study aimed to determine the seasonal...

Genetic markers for hygienic behavior in honeybees

The objective of this study was to measure the efficacy of two organic acid treatments, formic acid (FA) and oxalic acid (OA) for the spring control of Varroa destructor (Anderson and Trueman) in honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies. Forty-eight varroa-infested colonies were randomly distributed amongst six experimental groups (n = 8 colonies per...

We present the investigation of an outbreak of cercarial dermatitis that occurred in a recreational-tourist lake in the Quebec City region (Canada) in the summer of 1999. A case-reporting form was sent to 450 families likely to have activities that would bring them in contact with the lake's water. The snails were characterized and the prevalence o...

Thèse (de maîtrise) - Université Laval, 1987. Bibliogr. : f. 52-53. Microfiche.