• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.315-320
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• 2015

Acarapis mites, including Acarapis woodi, Acarapis externus, and Acarapis dorsalis, are parasites of bees which can cause severe damage to the bee industry by destroying colonies and decreasing honey production. All 3 species are prevalent throughout many countries including UK, USA, Iran, Turkey, China, and Japan. Based on previous reports of Acarapis mites occurring in northeast Asia, including China and Japan, we investigated a survey of Acarapis mite infestations in honey bees in Korean apiaries. A total of 99 colonies of Apis mellifera were sampled from 5 provinces. The head and thorax of 20 bees from each colony were removed for DNA extraction. PCR assays were performed with 3 primer sets, including T, A, and K primers. Results indicated that 42.4% (42/99) of samples were Acarapis-positive by PCR assay which were sequenced to identify species. Each sequence showed 92.6-99.3% homology with reference sequences. Based on the homology, the number of colonies infected with A. dorsalis was 32 which showed the highest infection rate among the 3 species, while the number of colonies infected with A. externus and A. woodi was 9 and 1, respectively. However, none of the Acarapis mites were morphologically detected. This result could be explained that all apiaries in the survey used acaricides against bee mites such as Varroa destructor and Tropilaelaps clareae which also affect against Acarapis mites. Based on this study, it is highly probable that Acarapis mites as well as Varroa and Tropilaelaps could be prevalent in Korean apiaries.

• Journal of Apiculture
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2019

Tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi) is an internal parasite that is parasitic on the bronchus of adult bees and sucks fluid from the trachea. Since its first report by Rennie, it has been spread throughout Europe and in some Asian regions, with adjacent Japan and China reported in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Korea detected specific genes of A. woodi in 2015, but only one of 99 samples has been identified and the being of A. woodi has not been confirmed. In this study, we established a specific nested PCR method to confirm for detecting low-copy number of A. woodi-specific gene in bee samples. As a result, A. woodi-specific COI gene was amplified in 15 of 23 samples, and they were judged positive by melting point analysis and sequencing analysis. Although we could not observe the existence of the mites in bees, our results suggest that tracheal mit might exist in nature.