Publications by authors named "M P Pietropaoli"
Airborne pollutants like particulate matter and volatile organic compounds can negatively impact microbial, plant, and animal life as well as human health. Traditional environmental monitoring, while crucial, often relies on expensive equipment at limited locations, leading to gaps in geographical coverage. To obtain a low-cost, easily deployed environmental monitoring grid, the use of European honey bees (Apis mellifera) as biomonitor can offer a promising alternative.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Recent research highlights the importance of understanding genetic diversity in honey bee populations due to declines caused by human activities and climate change, focusing specifically on Carniolan honey bees in Central and South-Eastern Europe.
- The study used advanced genetic analysis methods to distinguish Carniolan honey bees from Italian honey bees and discovered varying levels of genetic mixing and relationships among different populations based on geographic location.
- Findings suggest that while Carniolan honey bees exhibit genetic homogeneity overall, they possess sufficient genetic diversity within their native range that requires monitoring to support future breeding programs.
Honey bee viruses in combination with varroa mite are very damaging for honey bee colonies worldwide. There are no effective methods to control the viral load in honey bee colonies except regular and effective control of mites. Integrated Pest Management strategies are required to effectively control mites with veterinary medicines based on organic compounds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne of the most critical steps for accurate taxonomic identification in DNA (meta)-barcoding is to have an accurate DNA reference sequence dataset for the marker of choice. Therefore, developing such a dataset has been a long-term ambition, especially in the Viridiplantae kingdom. Typically, reference datasets are constructed with sequences downloaded from general public databases, which can carry taxonomic and other relevant errors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe tested an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy to control European foulbrood (EFB) in honey bees. Colonies affected by EFB were assigned to two homogenous groups: an oxytetracycline-treated group (1.5 g OTC/hive) that underwent partial shook swarm (PSS) in combination with queen caging (QC) and an untreated group where only two beekeeping techniques, PSS and QC, were applied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF