Treatments of honey bee colonies affected by Varroa destructor in organic apiculture

Summary

The organic honey bee productions are provided for in the EU Regulation 1804/99. Notwithstanding the beekeeping industry deserves a considerable economic importance to the whole organic market of the EU, limited action is paid in favour of the organic beekeeping. A noticeable exception to this are the huge research efforts on the disease control, which is mainly due to the lack of useful and not contaminating remedies against severe pests hitting the honey bees in the whole EU.
To avoid the honey contamination with treatment residues is paramount and fosters researche on soft chemicals like oxalic acid, which is of utmost impor-tance not only in organic, but also in conventional contexts.
The Authors are presenting here a synthetic review on the treatments against the varroosis with OA and on their research to optimise the use of the substance in different Italian environments.