## 2 Materials and Methods
Part \"A\" (5 questions) aimed to gather general information on the perceptions regarding honey bee diseases, the proper management of the hives and the use of medicines; part \"B\" (16 questions) aimed to assess specific knowledge about the prevention and control measures adopted by the participants against Varroa, American roulbrod (AFB) and European foulbrod (EFB); and part \"C\" (24 questions) aimed to collect information concerning the kind of assistance available to beekeepers, their perceptions about the efficacy of treatments and the need for new VMPs. All responses from participants were tabulated and the basic data analysis and presentation was achieved using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (Microsoft\({}^{\circledR}\), Redmond, Washington, DC, USA). Graphs were prepared for each question of the survey using percentages \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Letter/Number** & **Question, (Type of Question)** & **Part/Section** \\ \hline
27 & Where do you get assistance about apary treatments? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
28 & Do you think veterinarians are sufficiently informed on the honeybee & C \\  & diseases and the related treatments? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
29 & Do you think you are well informed about the good beekeeping practices & C \\  & to apply at the apary level? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
30 & Do you consider effective the veterinary products available in your country & C \\  & to treat the following hive diseases? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
31 & Do you buy veterinary medicines, to treat the following diseases? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
32 & Do you use homemade medicines to treat the following diseases? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
33 & Have you already noticed lack of efficacy of treatments? (Cl) & C \\ \hline
34 & Which active ingredients do you think are no longer effective (e.g., because & C \\  & of resistance)? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
35 & What do you think could be done to improve the efficacy of the available & C \\  & treatments? (Oe) & C \\ \hline
36 & Do you think you need new active ingredients against honeybee diseases? & C \\  & (Cl) & C \\ \hline
37 & Which new active ingredients would you need against Varroa? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
38 & Which new active ingredients would you need against AFB? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
39 & Which new active ingredients would you need against FEB? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
40 & Which new active ingredients would you need against Nosema? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
41 & Which new active ingredients would you need against Tracheal mite & C \\  & (_Acanopsis wood_)? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
42 & Which new active ingredients would you need against Small hive beetle & C \\  & (_Acithina tumida_)? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
43 & Which new active ingredients would you need against Tropilaelaps? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
44 & Which new active ingredients would you need against Myiasis of & C \\  & honeybees (e.g., _Senotaintia tricuspis_)? (Sm) & C \\ \hline
45 & Which new active ingredients would you need against any other diseases & C \\  & that were not mentioned in this survey? (Oe) & C \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* \"Semi-closed\" is a single-choice question with the option to further specify the answer by writing a reply. 2 \"Closed\" is a question that can only be answered by selecting one or multiple choices from a limited number of options. 3 \"Open-ended\" is a question that allows the participant to give a free form answer by writing a reply.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: _Cont._or weighted averages, according to the type of collected data. In particular, a modified equation was used to calculate the weighted arithmetic means (Figure 1) in order to take the variations in the total number of answers for each disease into consideration:  
\[\frac{\sum_{i=1}^{n}w_{i}*\frac{v_{i}}{f_{d}}}{\sum_{i=1}^{n}w_{i}} \tag{1}\]  
where: \(w_{i}\) = Weight assigned to the disease impact parameter (i); \(T_{d}\) = Total number of answers from participants for disease (\(d\)); \(x_{i}\) = Number of participants who chose the parameter (\(i\)) for the disease (\(d\)).