I love sitting in a climate-controlled lab pipetting liquid from one tube to another or staring gleefully for hours at strings of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs on the computer screen. However, suiting up to work bees in the summer heat is a nice (temporary) change of pace. There is something calming about the loud, steady buzz of 20,000+ worker bees on a stinging rampage to kill you because you opened the hive to collect some of their sisters for science experiments.
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Now on to the science!
Domestication of honey bees (Apis mellifera) has links back to the origins of agriculture [1]. Honey bees are known for their honey production, but also provide critical pollination duties for many plants. In fact, around 87% of all flowering plants are dependent on some form of animal pollinators, such as bees [2]. In agriculture, there are ~90 crop species that require pollination and there seems to be benefits to self pollinating plants, like soybeans [3].
NAGC’s honey bee projects aim to identify and monitor hidden pathogenic threats to colonies as well as describe queen ancestry with focus on Africanized honey bees (aggressive behavior).
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Project: High-throughput screening for the genetic markers of Africanized honey bee colonies.
Funders: ND Dept of Ag Funding Period: 2022-2024
Summary: Africanized honey bee (AHB) colonies are a larger problem in southern states, but it is still possible for North Dakota beekeepers across the spectrum (commercial to hobbyists) to unintentionally acquire AHBs through purchasing of starter colonies (i.e., nucs) and queens from southern suppliers. The National Agricultural Genotyping Center (NAGC) proposes to validate a practical screening test to identify one of the common genetic markers associated with AHBs. This additional test will be integrated into the workflow and testing service already in place at NAGC for the comprehensive honey bee pathogen panel.
Outcomes – Details coming soon!
Project: Using Honey Samples to Monitor Pathogens and Parasites in North Dakota Beekeeping Operations
Funders: ND Dept of Ag Funding Period: 2021-2023
Summary – Details coming soon!
Outcomes – Details coming soon!
Project Title – A Quantitative and Longitudinal Study of Honey Bee Health
Funders: ND Dept of Ag Funding Period: 2018-2020
Summary: The damage caused by honey bee diseases is a persistent problem for the beekeeping industry. Many pathogens that cause serious disease can persist at low levels, silently spreading within and among apiaries. Once visual symptoms appear, it may be too late to manage the disease, resulting in colony losses. The first step in effective control is surveillance and rapid detection of pathogens, especially in colonies that appear asymptomatic. To move towards this goal, the availability of more sensitive diagnostic tests must increase at the national scale. Unfortunately, many beekeepers may be unaware of their access to advanced diagnostics, unfamiliar with the technology, or unsure how pathogen data can be used for management.
NAGC developed a comprehensive pathogen panel to detect and quantify levels of 15 distinct pathogens (11 viral, 2 bacterial, 2 fungal) from adult bee samples. We also developed a simple collection protocol for testing that can be used in conjunction with Varroa mite monitoring without any specialized equipment. We used the new panel and collection protocols on a 2-year, large-scale surveillance project that tracked pathogen loads in commercial operations participating in almond pollination. The goal was to evaluate how pathogen diversity was related with seasonal colony strength and colony loss from analyzing over 800 colony visits.
Outcomes –
At the completion of the longitudinal project, NAGC performed over 14,300 diagnostic tests from a total of 957 colony visits. We found an average of five pathogens per colony visit and that two viruses (ABPV and IABPV) were associated with weakening colonies. There was also an association between colonies that died and elevated levels of a virus (DWV-B) and Varroa mites. These results provide the first clues on the viral pathogens that are linked to weakening or dying colonies within North Dakota beekeeping operations.
Zack Bateson, Ph.D. 