While pollination is necessary to produce most of the fruits and vegetables we eat, it is even more mandatory for kiwi.

Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) are excellent biosensors that can be managed to collect valuable information about environmental contamination.

Honeybees exposed to very small doses of neurotoxic substances such as imidacloprid, don’t die but they present dysfunction or disorder of their nervous system, their glandular system as well as their cardiac and respiratory rhythms.

We propose a modelling framework aiming at assessing the bee health status and forecast colony outputs. Two modelling tools are here presented: (i) a Health Status Index (HSI) exploring the consequences of abiotic, biotic drivers and beekeeping actions on bee health; and (ii) predictive models for the estimation of honey production and the provision of pollination service considering abiotic, biotic drivers and HSI.

It is a particularly important and increasing threat to the managed honeybee colonies, which are vital in crop pollination. Artificial selection for disease-resistant honeybee genotypes has previously only been carried out at the colony-level, that is, by using queens or males reared from colonies that show resistance.

 Neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used and highly toxic to honey bees, have been found in previous analyses of honey bee pollen and comb material. However, the routes of exposure have remained largely undefined.

In 1989, the lure of bees and beekeeping just would not go away. I went back to beekeeping as a hobbyist. I just intended to keep bees purely for enjoyment.