UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

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UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADEFaculty of Veterinary
Medicine
Department of Biology
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Project title
"Genetic and ecological investigations of honey
bees in relation to disease resistance and
production of ecologically safe food" Project
leader Dr Zoran Stanimirovic, Associate
Professor
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OBJECTIVES   1. To determine the level of
resistance to brood and adult honey bee
diseases and exertion of honey bee hygienic
and grooming behaviours in investigated
regions 2. To ascertain the productive and
reproductive potentials of the indigenous
honey bees in Serbia 3.  To identify harmful
effects (genotoxic, mutagenic and cancerogenic)
of chemical substances and drugs used in
supplementary feeding and health protection
of honey bees 4.  To evaluate the possibilities
for organic beekeeping 5. Formulation,
production and preclinical investigations of
preparations based on honey bee products
and medicinal herbs.
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Graph 1. Canonical discriminant analysis of
samples from the three geographic regions
in Serbia.
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B
T
G banded chromosomes of the Banat (B), Timok
(T) and SyenichkoPeshterski (SP) honey bee
ecotypes.
SP
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Comparative idiogram of chromosomes 2, 4, 11 and
13 with differences in number and distribution
of euchromatin and heterochromatin bands of
Banat (B), Timok (T) and SyenichkoPeshterski
(SP) carniolan honey bee ecotypes.
2 B 2 T 2 SP 4 B 4 T 4 SP
11 B 11 T 11 SP 13 B 13 T 13 SP
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HONEY BEE HYGIENIC BEHAVIOUR
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Graph 2. Comparison of hygienic behaviour between
potent, medium potent and weak honey bee colonies
from Machva region.
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Damaged mites Varroa sp. - results of HONEY BEE
GROOMING BEHAVIOUR
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Graph 3. Comparison of grooming behaviour between
potent, medium potent and weak honey bee colonies
from Machva region.
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• EXPECTED RESULTS
• Registration of honey bee colonies with
  superhygienic
• and grooming behaviors, which will
  represent selection material
• for breeding of queen and packed swarms
  resistant to brood
• and adult honey bee diseases with preserved
  productive
• and reproductive potentials
• Giving prominence to products free of drug
  residues used in
• beekeeping and exclusion of products
  contaminated with residues
• which possess genotoxic and mutagenic
  potential
• Identification of regions for organic farming
  (organic bee-keeping,
• fruit growing and production of medicinal
  herbs)
• Formulation and production of preparations and
  alternative
• medications based on honey, pollen, wax,
  propolis and oils of medicinal herbs, which may
  be applied in treatment of skin and respiratory
  disorders, mastitis and some reproductive
  disorders of domestic animals and human beings.