Bees for Development Journal 133 December 2019
The African Way Healthy bee colonies and sustainable income maintenance Wolfgang Ritter, Ute Schneider Ritter, Martin Ritter, Gozde Okcu, BEES for the world Honey bees, as pollinators of plants for better harvest and as producers of honey, make an important contribution to our food. In recent decades there have been some massive losses of bee colonies in America and Europe, for which a series of causes has been identified. Diseases appear to play an important role. As an expert on the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE, Paris) and the World Federation of Beekeeping Associations (APIMONDIA, Rome), Dr Wolfgang Ritter has been searching for many years for systems, where bee colonies survive disease without the use of medication. Looking at the OIE atlas of bee disease spreading you can detect many white spots on the African continent. Certainly, it can be concluded that respective examinations have not been conducted. But more often bee colonies especially in East Africa usually do not have problems with brood diseases like American Foulbrood and Varroa virus infections.
In Uganda, Ute talks with a beekeeping family about their situation. Especially women repeatedly stress how strange it would be for them to treat bees with medication when they and their children have insufficient means
Bee health in Africa American Foulbrood has been known since ancient times and should have occurred in these parts of Africa also. However, the first evidence of Paenibacillus larvae, the pathogen of American Foulbrood could be confirmed recently in Kenya obviously showing no clinical signs of this disease. In our own examinations in East Africa, we could neither state an outbreak of American Foulbrood nor prove its pathogen in honey samples taken from food
stored around brood areas. The bee races there evidently exhibit strong hygienic behaviour enabling them to remove any infected larvae before the infectious spores can develop.
Images © Wolfgang Ritter and Ute Schneider-Ritter
The Varroa mite has been recorded for a long time in North and South Africa. Its distribution was proved recently in East, Middle and West Africa. Because of the epidemiology of this parasite, it can be concluded that is has been present all over this continent for many years. Problems with this parasite are only rarely reported from Africa. If there are reports, they mostly come from so-called “modern” apiaries, where the application of American/European management methods using multistorey hives and comb frames has been introduced. Here, medical treatment has been applied or is going to be considered, because of these losses. During our examinations in East Africa, we found Varroa mites and some viruses transferred by the mite including Acute Bee Paralysis Virus and Deformed Wing Virus, but without showing considerable effect on the colony’s health or causing visible damage. Obviously, the strong hygienic behaviour also helps the bees keep the infestation rate of Varroa mites low.
Development cooperation does not mean introducing something learned and experienced at home but listening- sometimes for a very long time – and to learn from those conversations. Eighty-year-old Aba Asefa tells Wolfgang and Ute of BEES for the world and Tilahun Gebey of Bees for Development Ethiopia, about his beekeeping experience
In discussions with beekeepers and experts accompanying us, we could more and more clearly reveal other correlations. The key factor seems to be the bees’ swarming instinct, the connected self-healing capacity by honey bee colonies and the permanent exchange with wild bee populations. 8
