[en] In honey bees (Apis mellifera L.), hygienic behavior of workers against Varroa destructor provides the colonies with some resistance to this parasite. The removal of freeze-killed brood (FKB) has often been used as a proxy to assess the removal of Varroa-infested brood. The question is whether this approximation is reliable enough to estimate the benefits induced by the removal of Varroa-infested brood in unselected stocks. For this purpose, we investigated the relation between the removal of FKB and three other variables: (1) the percentage of pupae and workers infested by V. destructor; (2) the share of mites in brood compared to phoretic mites; and (3) the reproductive success of mites. To be a reliable estimate, the removal of FKB should correlate with these three variables. Since hygienic behavior is naturally expressed and highly variable in unselected stocks, we chose to use such stocks to get a wide range of FKB removal. There was no correlation between FKB and the three other variables. We conclude that removal of FKB is not a good estimate for hygienic behavior towards Varroa mites in unselected stocks. [es] En las abejas melı´feras (Apis mellifera L.), el comportamiento higie´nico de las obreras contra Varroa destructor proporciona a las colmenas resistencia a este para´sito. La eliminacio´n de la crı´a congelada (ECC) se ha utilizado con frecuencia para evaluar la eliminacio´n de la crı´a infestada por varroa. La pregunta es si esta aproximacio´n es lo suficientemente confiable como para estimar los beneficios inducidos por la eliminacio´n de la crı´a infestada de varroa en poblaciones no seleccionadas. Para este propo´sito, hemos investigado la relacio´n entre la eliminacio´n de ECC y otras tres variables: (1) el porcentaje de pupas y obreras infestadas por V. destructor; (2) la proporcio´n de a´caros en la crı´a comparada con a´caros fore´ticos y (3) el e´xito reproductivo de a´caros. Para conseguir una estimacio´n fiable, la eliminacio´n de ECC deberı´a correlacionarse con estas tres variables. Dado que el comportamiento higie´nico se expresa naturalmente y es muy variable en las poblaciones no seleccionadas, hemos optado por utilizar dichas poblaciones para obtener un amplio rango de eliminacio´n de ECC. No hubo correlacio´n entre la ECC y las otras tres variables. Se concluye que la eliminacio´n de ECC no es una buena estimacio´n del comportamiento higie´nico contra los a´caros de varroa en poblaciones no seleccionadas.
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