Publications by authors named "Alberto Satta"

Honey, a natural food with a rich history, is produced by honeybees and other species of bees from nectar, other plant fluids, and honeydew of sap-sucking insects. During foraging, these bees may be exposed to plant protection products (PPPs), metals, and metalloids, potentially leading to residues in honey and hive products that could have a negative impact on human safety. Recognizing the lack of an appropriate methodology for pesticide contamination of honey and other hive products, this research aims to support the need for studies on residues in pollen and bee products for human consumption to establish safe maximum residue levels (MRLs) for consumers.

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Article Synopsis
  • Honey bees are vital for pollination but face threats from invasive subspecies, pathogens, and parasites, highlighting the need for better identification tools.
  • The introduction of HBeeID provides a powerful tool for identifying different honey bee subspecies using genomic data and diagnostic SNPs, even with incomplete samples.
  • HBeeID is adaptable for future improvements and can help monitor invasive honey bee species, aiding ecological management efforts.
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, also known as European hornet, is a eusocial Vespidae originally from Eurasia that was accidentally introduced on the island of Sardinia (Italy) in 2010. Currently, its distribution is limited to the northern area of the island. Considering that a non-harmful species in its native region can exhibit invasive behaviour when established in new environments, bio-ethological observations were conducted to better understand whether could show invasive traits in Sardinia, which represents a new introduction area.

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Honeybees use propolis collected from plants for coating the inner walls of their nest. This substance is also used as a natural antibiotic against microbial pathogens, similarly to many other animals exploiting natural products for self-medication. We carried out chemical analyses and laboratory bioassays to test if honeybees use propolis for social medication against their major ectoparasite: .

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During a bee fauna survey in the countryside of northern Sardinia, a honey bee queen ( L.) was detected while foraging on a borage ( L.) flower in Uri, Province of Sassari, Italy, most likely during an orientation flight before mating.

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Social distancing in response to infectious diseases is a strategy exhibited by human and nonhuman animals to counteract the spread of pathogens and/or parasites. Honey bee () colonies are ideal models to study this behavior because of the compartmentalized structure of these societies, evolved under exposure to parasite pressure and the need to ensure efficient functioning. Here, by using a combination of spatial and behavioral approaches, we investigated whether the presence of the ectoparasite mite induces changes in the social organization of colonies that could reduce the spread of the parasite.

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In Sardinia, the second largest Mediterranean island, 316 species of bees are known. Here, for the first time, the following 20 are reported: (Linnaeus, 1761), and Morice, 1904 (Colletidae); Imhoff, 1832, Pérez, 1902, (Linnaeus, 1758), . Pérez, 1903, Stöckhert, 1935, Spinola, 1838, and Pérez, 1895 (Andrenidae); Thomson, 1870 (Halictidae); Morawitz, 1875, (Nylander, 1856), (Jurine, 1807), Spinola, 1838, Pérez, 1884, and (Lepeletier, 1841) (Megachilidae); and Imhoff, 1834, Arnold, 1888, Morawitz, 1875 and (Rossi, 1790) (Apidae).

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The use of natural substances such as essentials oils against bee pathogens is of great interest as an alternative to traditional methods based on synthetic compounds like antibiotics and fungicides, in order to minimize the risk of having toxic residues in hive products and to prevent the development of resistance phenomena. This study evaluated the inhibitory, fungicidal and sporicidal activity of ten essential oils extracted from aromatic plants against , the etiological agent of chalkbrood, an invasive honey bee mycosis. The most effective essential oils were and , which showed values of minimum fungicidal concentration and minimum sporicidal concentration ranging from 200 to 400 ppm.

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Sardinian bitter honey, obtained from the autumnal flowering of the strawberry tree ( L.), has an old fame and tradition in popular use, especially as a medicine. Its knowledge dates back over 2000 years, starting from the Greeks and Romans to the present day.

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The mite , the main ectoparasite of honey bees, is a threat to apiculture worldwide. Understanding the ecological interactions between and honeybees is fundamental for reducing mite impact in apiaries. This work assesses bee colonies with various infestation levels in apiaries to determine: (1) the relationship between multi-infested brood cells and brood infestation level, (2) the damage caused by to parasitized honey bee pupae, and (3) mite reproduction rate at various infestation levels.

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is a widespread obligate intracellular parasite of the ventriculus of many species of honey bee (), including the Western honey bee , in which it may lead to colony death. It can be controlled in by feeding the antibiotic fumagillin to a colony, though this product is toxic to humans and its use has now been banned in many countries, so in beekeeping, there exists a need for alternative and safe products effective against . Honeybees produce propolis from resinous substances collected from plants and use it to protect their nest from parasites and pathogens; propolis is thought to decrease the microbial load of the hive.

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The safety of the entomopathogenic bacterium Brevibacillus laterosporus for the natural insect predator Chrysoperla agilis was evaluated in this study. For this purpose, laboratory bioassays were conducted exposing different larval instars and adults of the chrysopid to bacterial spore preparations, in order to evaluate the possible effects on survival, longevity, immature development, and adult reproductive performance. The sub-lethal effects were investigated by feeding the bacterium directly to adults and larvae of C.

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The inhibitory action that a Brevibacillus laterosporus strain isolated from the honeybee body causes against the American Foulbrood (AFB) etiological agent Paenibacillus larvae was studied by in-vitro experiments. A protein fraction isolated from B. laterosporus culture supernatant was involved in the observed inhibition of P.

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The German yellowjacket (Vespula germanica) is an opportunist predator and a scavenger, whose eclectic diet also includes honey, brood, dead and live honey-bees. There is no evidence in this species of coordinated attacks against bees involving other conspecifics, although intraspecific competition has been already reported between two or more individuals during feeding. Our aim was to gain further knowledge on the feeding behavior of V.

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Self-medication plays a major role in the behavioral defense against pathogens and parasites that animals have developed during evolution. The conditions defining this adaptive behavior are: (1) contact with the substance in question must be deliberate; (2) the substance must be detrimental to one or more parasites; (3) the detrimental effect on parasites must lead to increased host fitness. Recent studies have shown that A.

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Social insects have evolved colony behavioral, physiological, and organizational adaptations (social immunity) to reduce the risks of parasitization and/or disease transmission. The collection of resin from various plants and its use in the hive as propolis is a clear example of behavioral defense. For Apis mellifera, an increased propolis content in the hive may correspond to variations in the microbial load of the colony and to a downregulation of an individual bee's immune response.

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Predator-prey relationships between sympatric species allow the evolution of defense behaviors, such as honeybee colonies defending their nests against predatory wasps. We investigated the predator-prey relationship between the honeybee (Apis mellifera ligustica) and the European wasp (Vespula germanica) by evaluating the effectiveness of attack and defense behaviors, which have coevolved in these sympatric species, as well as the actual damage and disturbance caused to the colonies under attack. Attack and defense behaviors were recorded in front of the hive to observe attacks at the hive entrance (68 attacks in 279 h) and at ground level on isolated and weakened honeybees close to the hive (465 attacks in 32 h).

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The lethal and sub-lethal effects of sporulated cultures of a novel Bacillus cereus sensu lato strain lacking detectable cry genes and identified through morphological and genetic analyses, have been studied on the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata. The lethal effects on young larvae were concentration dependent, with a median lethal concentration (LC50) of 4.48 × 10(8)spores/g of diet.

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The pathological and histopathological course caused by Brevibacillus laterosporus on house fly larvae has been investigated conducting observations on insect behavior and midgut ultrastructure. After dissection and fixation, gut tissues were analyzed under transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in order to compare in vivo-treated and non-treated (control) fly specimens. Treated larvae showed extensively reduced feeding and growth rate, then became sluggish and died within 72 h.

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Mining activities represent a major source of environment contamination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of bees and ants as bioindicators to detect the heavy metal impact in post-mining areas. A biomonitoring programme involving a combination of honeybee hive matrices analysis and ant biodiversity survey was conducted over a 3-year period.

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Three slow release experimental rotenone formulations were tested to evaluate their effectiveness against Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman in colonies with sealed brood and to determine whether they left residues in honey and bees wax: we evaluated cardboard strip containing 1 g rotenone and two types of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) strips containing 1 (high-dose) and 0.5 (low-dose) g of rotenone, respectively. In general, the efficacy of the treatments, expressed as percentage of mite mortality, was highly variable in all treatment groups (range, 0-96.

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A bacterial formulation containing spores of a Brevibacillus laterosporus strain from Sardinia, known to be toxic by ingestion to the house fly (Musca domestica), was assayed in laboratory, outdoor, and field conditions for the control of immature stages of this pest. In all laboratory assays, the bacterial formulation exhibited toxicity against house fly larvae. A concentration of 1 x 10(8) spores of B.

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Two formic acid autumnal treatments, gel packets (BeeVar formulation) and impregnated paperwick (Liebig-Dispenser), were tested in apiary to evaluate their effectiveness against Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman and their residues in honey in a Mediterranean region (Sardinia, Italy). Both treatments were efficient in the apiary control of the varroosis, with values of percentage of mite mortality ranging between 93.6 and 100%, without statistical differences between them.

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An apiary trial on the use of two acaricide formulations (gel-Apiguard and vermiculite and Api Life VAR) in the control of Varroa destructor (Anderson & Trueman) was conducted in summer 2001 in Sardinia (Italy). The main goals were 1) to determine their effectiveness against V. destructor, taking into account natural mite mortality in control hives; and simultaneously 2) to determine the persistence of both formulations and residues in honey and wax, by using a new extraction method.

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