INVASION OF BEE SAMPLES WITH VARROA DESTRUCTOR

The aim of this work was to estimate the level of infestation of bee samples infested with Varroa destructor.It has been performed a laboratory assay of bee samples for the presence of the mite Varroa destructor.The investigation was for a period of two years – 2015 and 2016. The bee samples were collected from diseasedand dead bee colonies owned by 149 beekeepers. The result showеd that from 220 bee samples tested, 36%were positive for Varroa mite and negative samples were 64%. The level of infestation in positive samples wasas follows: less than 5% were in 39.2% of samples, between 5 to 20% and more than 20% were found in 30.4%for each level, respectively. In conclusion more than a third of the bee samples were infested with Varroa mites.Most of the bee samples had a low degree of invasion (< 5%) and the average and the high level of invasion ofbee samples were represented by the same values.