AN ISOLATED POPULATION OF ITALIAN BEES THAT HAS SURVIVED VARROA-JACOBSONI INFESTATION WITHOUT TREATMENT FOR OVER 12 YEARS

Twenty colonies of Italian bees, infested with Varroa jacobsoni were i ntroduced to the Island of Fernando de Noronha, located near the equat or off the coast of Brazil, in 1984, These colonies initiated a popula tion that Is isolated and protected from genetic contamination by 345 km of ocean. During the 13 years since that time, the colony numbers h ave increased to about 50 colonies in hives, and an undetermined numbe r of wild colonies on the 26 square kilometers of this archipelago. Ti lls group of colonies is unique, as it is maintained without any type of treatment, and get there is no evidence of significant damage or co lony mortality due to tile varroa infestations. The mean infestation r ates of the adult bees In the colonies, found to be about 26 mites per hundred bees in 1931, decreased to 19 in 1993, and 14 in 1996.