Determination of the Africanized mitotypes in populations of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) of Colombia

Apis mellifera beekeeping in Colombia began with European lineages brought by the Spanish colonizers of America. Experimental swarms of African lineages that accidentally escaped in Brazil in the 1950s reached Colombia in the 1970s, starting a genetic crossing with local European populations. Today it is assumed that the majority of the Colombian beekeeping is of Africanized type, although some beekeepers continue to import European queens, to confer meekness. To determine the prevalence of African mitotypes in bee populations of the country, PCR and sequencing of a fragment from the intergenic region of the cytochrome oxidase I and II (COI–COII) mitochondrial genes, were employed. This study analyzed 645 A. mellifera specimens collected in six regions of Colombia, representing the largest sampling survey of apiculture for a Latin American country. The results indicated that 98.3% of these populations had African mitotypes, represented in 17 classes (A): A1, A1b, A1e, A4, A11, A26, A26a, A26b, A26c, A26d, A29a, A30, A36, A39, A44, A46 and A47. Only 1.7% of beehives had European mitotypes (C), corresponding to ligustica subspecies. These results confirm that beekeeping in the country is mostly of the Africanized type.