Assessment of Pest Infestation Levels and Their Impact on Viral Dynamics in Bee Colonies

Dear Colleagues,

The health of honey bees has long been studied through single stress factors such as pathogens, pesticides, or nutrition. Over the past two decades, evidence has shown that colony losses rarely result from one cause alone. Agricultural intensification, reduced crop diversity, seasonal gaps in floral resources and declining pollen quality and availability increasingly interact with parasites and pathogens. Climate change further modifies flowering phenology, forage availability and pathogen pressure, creating new disease patterns in managed colonies.

This Special Issue aims to examine how agricultural management and nutrition influence disease resistance in honey bees. It focuses on the links between crop diversity, pollen composition, timing of floral resources, immune responses and infection outcomes under changing climatic conditions. The goal is to support crop protection strategies that also safeguard pollinator health.

We highlight work integrating field and laboratory data, immune markers, pathogen dynamics, microbiome shifts, nutritional metrics and climate-related stress. Studies combining landscape analysis with colony-level health indicators are especially encouraged.

We welcome original research, short communications and review articles addressing bee pathology, nutrition–immunity links, disease ecology in agroecosystems and applied management solutions relevant to sustainable agriculture.

Dr. Maja Ivana Smodiš Škerl
Guest Editor

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