Description

Description

Now in its fully updated Second Edition, this essential volume explores the crucial role of honey bees in agriculture and global ecosystems—and the growing challenges that threaten their survival. Since the mid‑1990s, beekeepers worldwide have witnessed dramatic colony losses driven by disease, intoxication, emerging parasites, and other still‑unresolved factors. As apiculture becomes increasingly globalised, veterinarians and animal‑health professionals are more vital than ever in protecting honey bee health.

• This new edition provides an accessible yet comprehensive overview of honey bee biology, environmental interactions, intoxication, major diseases, and parasitic threats—with expanded coverage of Varroa destructor and updated information on invasive species such as the small hive beetle (Aethina tumida) and Tropilaelaps mites
• It examines contemporary issues shaping beekeeping today, including climate change, crop‑pollination dynamics and antimicrobial resistance
  New chapters on One Health and pollinators as foundations for honey bee veterinary medicine, nutrition, nutritional disorders, honey bee welfare and biosecurity in honey bee farms have been added in this second edition for a better comprehension of the importance of a necessary overview of the honey bee health in the environment and its roles in the biodiversity
• A chapter on autopsy and dissection of an adult honey bee follows the one on veterinary practice to give a whole overview on what a practitioner can do in the field of honey bee veterinary medicine
• A new important chapter dedicated to honey bee health and beekeeping in Africa, Asia and South America where not only Apis mellifera, but also Stingless bees and Apis cerana are reared for honey production and pollination

Designed for veterinarians, students, researchers, and apiculture specialists, Honey Bee Veterinary Medicine is equally valuable for beekeepers, environmental organisations, and anyone committed to the future of honey bee health.

Author

Nicolas Vidal-Naquet, DVM, graduated in apiculture and Honeybee medicine, is a veterinary practitioner and lecturer in Honeybee biology and diseases at the Veterinary School of Alfort, France.

Contents

• Preface
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 One Health and pollinators: Foundations for honey bee veterinary medicine
• 2 Biology of Apis mellifera L.: From the individual to the super-organism
• 3 Nutrition of Apis mellifera L.: Food resources, foraging, feeding behaviour and nutrients needs
• 4 Nutritional ecology and nutritional disorders of the honey bee colony
• 5 Honey bees and the environment: environmental and chemical stressors affecting colony health
• 6 Viruses and viral diseases
• 7 Honey bee bacterial diseases
• 8 Parasitic diseases of honey bees
• 9 Fungal and protozoan diseases of honey bees
• 10 Pests, enemies of honey bee colonies and interspecific competition
• 11 Honey bee welfare
• 12 Honey bee veterinary practice and population health
• 13 Dissection and autopsy of an adult honey bee (Apis mellifera L.)
• 14 Biosecurity and honey bee farms
• 15 Good beekeeping practices
• 16 Honey bee health and beekeeping in Africa, Asia and the Central/South America
• Appendices