Challenges and Advances in Bee Health and Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

Following the great participation that the Special Issue “Honey Bee Health” saw, we have decided to launch another issue on this topic. This new invitation extends beyond honeybees, including also wild and solitary bees.

Honeybee diseases are continuously studied by researchers to investigate their relationship with host/parasites. Diseases are caused by several types of pathogens: bacteria, such as Melissococcus plutonius and Paenibacillus larvae; microsporidia, such as Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae; fungi, such as Ascosphaera apis; trypanosomatids, such as Crithidia mellificae, Lotmaria passim, and Crithidia bombi; mites, such as Varroa destructor; predatory wasps, including Vespa velutina; and invasive beetle, such as Aethina tumida, all of which are of great veterinary interest.

All these pathogens may be able to infect not only other bees, such as Bombus spp., Osmia spp., Megachiles spp., etc, but also invasive species that could be vectors for the honeybee population—not only Varroa destructor, which represents the mainly virus transmission route, but also Aethina tumida and Vespa velutina, which can be infected by a wide range of bee pathogens, but whose roles in epidemiology remain unclear.

Recently, host–pathogen interactions for bee health have been included in a multifactorial approach, involving a dynamic balance among a range of threats and resources interacting at multiple levels of scale.

The aim of this Special Issue is to explore bee health through a series of research articles focused on different aspects of bee health, including Apis mellifera but also other wild bee species, at different levels of organization, including molecular health, microbial health, population genetic health, and interaction with invasive species that live in close contact with the bee population.

Dr. Giovanni Cilia
Dr. Antonio Nanetti
Guest Editors

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