Biological threat management and genetic resources conservation of Iranian honeybee Apis mellifera meda

Identification of biological threats and the ways to deal with them in order to create food security as well as genetic resources conservation are important goals of non-operational defense in agricultural and animal husbandry fields. One of the major threats in Iranian beekeeping industry is legal and illegal importation of colony products such as pollen, wax, honey, royal jelly and especially the honeybee queen. These importations not only are risks to the extinction of the native subspecies of Iranian honeybee as a precious genetic resources of Iran, but also increase of pests and diseases importation and damaging to food security. Because of the biological characteristics and mating behaviors of honeybee, the importation of queens cause replacement of native queens with foreign queens and loss of native species of honeybee in the country and also it causes to entrance new honeybee diseases and pests. The new diseases which were reported from Iran during the recent years because of illegal queen importations are including: Israeli Acute Paralytic Virus, Sacbrood Virus, Deforming Wing Virus, Kashmir and the Black Queen Cell Viruses. Generally, due to the vital role of honeybee in producing of agricultural crops and one third of human food are necessary using of legal tools in the non-operational defense organization for reducing vulnerability against the crises and biological threats of Iranian honeybee as one of the valuable genetic resources of Iran.