Geoffrey Williams

Peter Neumann

Panuwan Chantawannakul

From the perspective of local scientists, this book provides insight into bees and bee management of Asia, with a special focus on honey bees. Asia is home to at least nine honey bee species, including the introduced European honey bee, Apis mellifera. Although A. mellifera and the native Asian honey bee, Apis cerana, are the most commonly employed species for commercial beekeeping, the remaining non-managed native honey bee species have important ecological and economic roles on the continent. Species distributions of most honey bee species overlap in Southeast Asia, thus promoting the potential for interspecies transmission of pests and parasites, as well as their spread to other parts of the world by human translocation. Losses of managed A. mellifera colonies is of great concern around the world, including in Asia. Such global colony losses are believed to be caused, in part, by pests and parasites originating from Asia such as the mite Varroa destructor, the microsporidian Nosema ceranae, and several bee viruses. Taking advantage of the experience of leading regional bee researchers, this book provides insight into the current situation of bees and bee management in Asia. Recent introductions of honey bee parasites of Asian origin to other parts of the world ensures that the contents of this book are broadly relevant to bee scientists, researchers, government offi cials, and the general public around the world.

Asian Beekeeping in the 21st Century

key pollinators honey bees, have been evolved for million years along with flowering plants. Asia is rich with species diversity and the bees are known to play vital roles in maintaining the the local fauna and sustain the agricultural crops to secure food sources for human consumption in the region, where the population continue to grow. Southeast Asia is regarded as a hot spot for scientists to study ecological interaction and co-evolution between hosts and parasites 9n different species of honey bees. The most serious and widespread bee pathogens and parasites today in the European honey bee are parasitic mites. nosema, kashmir bee virus which may have originated from Asian honey bees in South East Asia, More information on Asian honey bee health can also reflect the future threat in European honey bee worldwide especially when the global warming and fast transportation allow the prevalence and dissemination of tropics pathogens and parasites. This book aims to provide the current bee health status of honey bees in Asia which are now under emerging pressures from natural causes and human activities in modern society of globalization. Symbiotic relationships between living organisms and honey bees are also described

Panuwan Chantawannakul

About

Books

Join the club