Honeybees have evolved a social immunity consisting of the cooperation of individuals to decrease disease in the hive. We identified a set of genes involved in this social immunity by analysing the brain transcriptome of highly varroa-hygienic bees, who efficiently detect and remove brood infected with the Varroa destructor mite. The function of these candidate genes does not seem to support a ...

Aim: The present study was carried out to explore the potential source of contamination and the efficacy of different washing practices towards quality milk production. Materials and Methods: Probable sources of contamination viz. stored water, potable water, milker’s hands, milking pail, udder of individual buffalo and milk cans were subjected to different types of bacterial counts before the ...

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Over the past few years, the demand for the introduction of fish products in public canteens (schools, hospitals and nursing-homes) has grown due to their good nutritional proprieties. The particular health conditions and sensitivity of some groups of consumers exposes them to greater risks of food poisoning. It is therefore important to monitor the raw materials that end up in mass catering im...

Recently, increasing incidences of AFB and problems controlling the disease – based on resistance build-up in the bacteria, increased residue problems, and loss of natural resistance in bees have renewed the interest for AFB tolerant honey bee strains world-wide. The honey bee possesses different tolerance mechanisms against AFB – e.g. larval resistance, hygienic behaviour and food inhibition o...

Parasites are ubiquitous in nature and can be costly to animal fitness, so hosts have evolved behavioural counter-strategies to mitigate infection risk. We investigated feeding-related infection-avoidance strategies in Japanese macaques via field-experimentation and observation. We first examined risk sensitivity during foraging tasks involving faecally contaminated or debris-covered food items...

Social insects have many defence mechanisms against pests and pathogens. One of these is hygienic behaviour, which has been studied in detail in the honey bee, Apis mellifera Hygienic honey bee workers remove dead and diseased larvae and pupae from sealed brood cells, thereby reducing disease transfer within the colony. Stingless bees, Meliponini, also rear broods in sealed cells. We investigat...

BACKGROUND According to observations by occupational health physicians, nearly 50 % of the seamen on German vessels will get diseases of the upper respiratory tract. An impact of the air-conditioning systems on these diseases has been suggested. OBJECTIVES To examine the hygienic quality of indoor air on seagoing vessels, a pilot study was initiated by the See-Berufsgenossenschaft. METHODS ...

Honey bees use propolis to defend against invaders and disease organisms. As some colonies produce much more propolis than others, we investigated whether propolis collecting is associated with disease resistance traits, including hygienic behavior and resistance to the parasitic bee mite, Varroa destructor. The three highest (HP) and three lowest propolis-producing (LP) colonies among 36 Afric...

The ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor and honey bee pathogenic viruses have been implicated in the recent demise of honey bee colonies. Several studies have shown that the combination of V. destructor and deformed wing virus (DWV) poses an especially serious threat to honey bee health. Mites transmitting virulent forms of DWV may cause fatal DWV infections in the developing bee, while pupae ...