The present study was carried out in the honey bee laboratory of Faculty of Agriculture, Benha
University, Egypt during two successive years 2014 and 2015 at the period from October to December to
prove that the oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis L.) was considered as AFB disease vector to honeybee (Apis
mellifera L.) colonies. Firstly, the number of oriental wasps in two Egyptian governorates (Qalubia and
Menofia) were surveyed, then these nests were checked for AFB disease infestation. Results indicated that
the mean number of collected oriental wasp nests was 13.5 and 13.0 nests in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
And from the collected nests, 66 and 53.4 % were infected and showed typically symptoms of AFB during
2014 and 2015, respectivelly. Additionally, the mean ratio of infected oriental wasp larvae with AFB was
16.7 and 21.7% in the years 2014 and 2015, respectively. The mean number of oriental wasp combs per nest
was higher in 2014 with 4.3 comb/nest than 2015 with and 3.8 comb/nest. After that, four bacterial isolates
were isolated from the infected larvae and identified as Paenibacillus larvae using the molecular techniques. |
