The use of antibiotics is not permitted in Switzerland; moreover, no other medication exists to combat European foul brood. Hives with symptoms must therefore be destroyed in order to limit the outbreak, and the contaminated material must be sanitised. Since prevention is the best cure, early detection is desirable. Numerous studies have been undertaken and documents have been created at the Swiss Bee Research Centre and elsewhere to draw the attention of beekeepers to these problems and inform them about the causes and the control measures to be implemented.
Bishop G., Kleiijn D., Albrecht M., Bartomeus I., Isaacs R., Kremen C., Magrach A., Ponisio L., Potts S., Scheper J., Smith H., Tscharntke T., Albrecht J., Aström J., Badenhausser I., Baldi A., Basu P., Berggren A., Beyer N., Blüthgen N., Bommarco R., Brosi B., Cohen H., Cole L., Denning K., Devoto M., Ekroos J., Fornoff F., Foster B., Gillespie M., Gonzalez-Andujar J., Gonzalez-Varo J., Goulson D., Grass I., Hass A., Herrera J., Holzschuh A., Hopfenmüller S., Izquierdo J., Jauker B., Kallioniemi E., Kirsch F., Klein A., Kovacs-Hostyanszki A., Krauss J., Krimmer E., Kunin W., Laha S., Lindström S., Mandelik Y., Marcacci G., McCracken D., Monasterolo M., Morandin L., Morrison J., Mudri Stojnic S., Ollerton J., Persson A., Philipps B., Piko J., Power E., Quinlan G., Rundlöf M., Raderschall C., Riggi L., Roberts S., Roth T., Senapathi D., Stanley D., Steffan-Dewenter I., Stout J., Sutter L., Tanis M., Tarrant S., van Kolfschoten L., Vanbergen A., Vila M., von Königslow V., Vujic A., WallisDeVries M., Wen A., Westphal C., Wickens J., Wickens V., Wilkinson N., Wood T., Fijen T.
Critical habitat thresholds for effective pollinator conservation in agricultural landscapes.
Biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes is declining, but evidence-based conservation targets to guide international policies for such landscapes are lacking. We present a framework for informing habitat conservation policies based on the enhancement of habitat quantity and quality and define thresholds of habitat quantity at which it becomes effective to also prioritize habitat quality. We applied this framework to insect pollinators, an important part of agroecosystem biodiversity, by synthesizing 59 studies from 19 countries. Given low habitat quality, hoverflies had the lowest threshold at 6% semi-natural habitat cover, followed by solitary bees (16%), bumble bees (18%), and butterflies (37%). These figures represent minimum habitat thresholds in agricultural landscapes, but when habitat quantity is restricted, marked increases in quality are required to reach similar outcomes.
