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Small Hive Beetle, Aethina tumida, in Africanized Honey Bees in Costa Rica: Sentinel Apiaries, Epidemiological Surveillance and Training Programs as Strategies for Early Detection or to Prevent Its Spread
(Bee World, 2023-02-01) Sánchez-Chaves, Luis A.; Calderón, Rafael
The Costa Rican case with Africanized honey bees strongly supports the notion that by implementing sentinel apiaries for continued surveillance, a degree of containment and deceleration of the invasion could be attained. The fact that, SHB was detected at the established sentinel apiary near the border with Nicaragua provided a better grasp of the dynamics at the early stages of the invasion process. Implemented with measures to restrict the movement of colonies in, and out of the region, may pay off in terms of slowing down SHB spread and allowing for the tracking of the invasion, anticipating SHB movements. Nevertheless, the fact that SHBs were found associated with a honey bee swarm in the Central Valley three years after the first report illustrates that this approach is not devoid of gaps, and that we may be underestimating the potential of the SHB to be transported by alternative means, or associated with other types of incoming freight, originating in or nearby the areas of early detection. In addition, training programs directed to beekeepers, seem to play an invaluable role in the success of early detection or to prevent SHB spread, as illustrated by the case in Africanized bees in Costa Rica.