Over the past decade, several countries have carried out monitoring programs of managed honey bee colonies, which suggest beekeeping difficulties, with high colony loss rates all over the world. Although Latin America plays a major role in the global honey supply, information about trends in beekeeping activities and honey bee colony losses are lacking. Using the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) dataset and a synthesis of unpublished data of colony losses survey carried out over the last 7 years, we reveal a worrying situation of the beekeeping in this region. The Latin American trends in honey production and beehive numbers are drifting from the global pattern, and several high colony loss rates were registered in this region. These results reveal the presence of beekeeping difficulties in Latin America. However, the variability in methods of colony loss survey across initiatives prevent proper conclusion on loss rates. Efforts are needed to adapt, centralize and standardize methods to monitor honey bee health and colony losses across countries in Latin America, the main objective of the “colony losses” working group at the Latin-American Society for Bee Research, SOLATINA, a large-scale platform created in 2017 to coordinate bee research programs in Latin America.

Las abejas melíferas (Apis mellifera) polinizan plantas tanto de sistemas naturales como manejados para la agricultura, contribuyendo a la producción de alimentos y a sostener y aumentar la biodiversidad. Desafortunadamente, en la actualidad ocurren casos de despoblación y pérdida de colonias de abejas en todo el mundo. Diferentes factores contribuyen a la disminución de poblaciones de abejas, entre ellos, patógenos (parásitos, hongos, bacterias y virus), alteración o pérdida de ecosistemas, o el uso de agroquímicos. Todos estos factores alteran los mecanismos de defensa del sistema inmune de las abejas. Las abejas melíferas poseen un sistema inmune innato que incluye barreras físicas, así como respuestas celulares y humorales, que son generalizadas y que les permite defenderse contra organismos infecciosos y parasitarios. Además de los agentes patógenos, acaricidas, fungicidas, herbicidas y otros plaguicidas, han demostrado tener efectos sobre su salud y sistema inmune. Los mecanismos involucrados en la defensa están representados por vías de señalización, receptores de reconocimiento de patógenos y efectores del sistema inmune innato. Aunque el sistema inmune de A. mellifera es muy similar al de las moscas Drosophila y los mosquitos Anopheles, solo poseen aproximadamente un tercio de los genes relacionados al sistema inmune de esos insectos. Este menor número de genes se debería al hecho de que A. mellifera posee inmunidad social, que es una estrategia de defensa que disminuye la presión sobre el sistema inmune individual de las abejas. En este artículo de revisión se discuten las bases del sistema inmune de la abeja melífera.

Over the last quarter century, increasing honey bee colony losses motivated standardized large-scale surveys of managed honey bees (Apis mellifera), particularly in Europe and the United States. Here we present the first large-scale standardized survey of colony losses of managed honey bees and stingless bees across Latin America. Overall, 1736 beekeepers and 165 meliponiculturists participated in the 2-year survey (2016–2017 and 2017–2018). On average, 30.4% of honey bee colonies and 39.6% of stingless bee colonies were lost per year across the region. Summer losses were higher than winter losses in stingless bees (30.9% and 22.2%, respectively) but not in honey bees (18.8% and 20.6%, respectively). Colony loss increased with operation size during the summer in both honey bees and stingless bees and decreased with operation size during the winter in stingless bees. Furthermore, losses differed significantly between countries and across years for both beekeepers and meliponiculturists. Overall, winter losses of honey bee colonies in Latin America (20.6%) position this region between Europe (12.5%) and the United States (40.4%). These results highlight the magnitude of bee colony losses occurring in the region and suggest difficulties in maintaining overall colony health and economic survival for beekeepers and meliponiculturists.