Source: UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA submitted to NRP
SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS AFFECTING HEALTH OF MANAGED BEES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
NRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0214666
Grant No.
2008-55302-04471
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
2008-05298
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 15, 2008
Project End Date
Nov 14, 2011
Grant Year
2009
Program Code
[51.2D]- Arthropod and Nematode Biology and Management (D): Protection of Managed Bees CAP
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
200 D.W. BROOKS DR
ATHENS,GA 30602-5016
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Awareness of the decline of honey bees and other pollinators took a dramatic upturn after two recent events: the October 2006 release of the National Research Council report "Status of Pollinators in North America" followed by high death rates of bee colonies in the winters of 2006-2008, a phenomenon now called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). All at once, managed pollinators were popularly recognized for what they always were: essential members of American agro-ecosystems. The problems with managed pollinators cannot be relegated to one or few causative agents. Bee declines are likely a product of negatively interacting factors in pathology, immunology, nutrition, toxicology, genetics, ecosystems management, and bee husbandry. In response, we have assembled a nationally-coordinated team of experts with proven capacity in extension, genomics, pathology, toxicology, management, pollination, and bee behavior. Our long-term goal is to restore large and diverse populations of managed bee pollinators across the United States to sustain natural and agricultural plant communities. To meet our goal we plan to: 1. Determine and mitigate causes of bee decline through research that identifies relevant pathogens and exposes the degree to which they interact with one another and other environmental stresses. 2. Identify genes that confer honey bee resistance to pests and diseases, identify pockets of genetic diversity in American honey bee populations, and channel superior-performing lines to university bee breeding programs where stocks can be propagated and apiaries serve as demonstrations for training workshops. 3. Improve management of bumble bee pollinators through research aimed at identifying factors believed to affect worker pollen foraging and pollination efficiency. 4. Deliver research knowledge to client groups by developing a technology transfer program for queen breeders and a literature on Best Management Practices for beekeepers and queen breeders on an eXtension web-based Community of Practice. The short-term expected outcomes include: 1. Beekeeper knowledge of causes and mitigation of CCD significantly increases. 2. Beekeeper knowledge of advantages of improved stock significantly increases. 3. Beekeeper awareness of benefits of a stock certification program significantly increases. 4. Producer knowledge of non-honey bee management significantly increases. 5. User awareness of eXtension website significantly increases. The medium-term expected outcomes are: 1. Beekeepers in significant numbers adopt Best Management Practices. 2. Beekeeping profitability improves significantly. 3. Barriers are removed to establishment of a sustainable market for genetically-improved queens. 4. Barriers are removed to establishment of a stock certification program.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
50%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2113099104010%
2113099108010%
2113099110110%
2113099110310%
2113099111010%
2113099115010%
2113099117010%
2113099303020%
2113099310010%
Knowledge Area
211 - Insects, Mites, and Other Arthropods Affecting Plants;

Subject Of Investigation
3099 - Bees, honey, and other pollinators, general;

Field Of Science
1040 - Molecular biology; 1101 - Virology; 1103 - Other microbiology; 1110 - Parasitology; 1080 - Genetics; 1150 - Toxicology; 1170 - Epidemiology; 3030 - Information and communication; 3100 - Management;
Goals / Objectives
Our long-term goal is to restore large and diverse populations of managed bee pollinators across the United States to sustain natural and agricultural plant communities. The specific goals of this project are to: 1. Determine and mitigate causes of Colony Collapse Disorder: study the interactive effects of disease agents (pathogens, parasites) and environmental factors (pesticides, nutrition) on honey bee health, 2. Incorporate traits that help honey bees resist pathogens and parasitic mites and increase genetic diversity of commercially available stocks, 3. Improve conservation and management of non-Apis pollinators by identifying new or emerging pathogens and parasites, abiotic stresses, and practices that optimize their pollinating efficacy, 4. Deliver research knowledge to client groups by developing a technology transfer program for queen breeders and a literature on Best Management Practices for queen breeders and managed pollinators as an eXtension Community of Practice.
Project Methods
Goal 1: Mitigate CCD We will compare virulence and pathology of Nosema apis and N. ceranae in caged bees and in colonies; determine whether there is competitive replacement of N. apis by N. ceranae; and determine whether there is an interaction between nutritional status and Nosema disease. We will study the effects of honey bee viruses, singly or in interaction with other stressors. Stationary sentinel apiaries will be set up in ME, PA, MN, TX, WA, and CA and an additional two in collaboration with ARS bee labs: AZ and LA. These colonies will be sampled systematically to learn the role of pests, pathogens and pesticides in causing morbidity in stationary bee colonies. These colonies will serve as a comparison group to a study undertaken by ARS with migratory colonies. Voucher specimens of honey bee viral pathogens will be gathered from researchers in the U.S. and internationally. DNA or RNA will be extracted from samples and the sequences deposited into GenBank and made available via a public web-based database. A Mass-Tag panmicrobial diagnosis assay will be established for detecting pathogens. Toxicological studies will be performed on the synergistic and sub-lethal effects of in-hive miticides and pesticide metabolites on colony health and bee physiology and behavior. This section includes a field study to demonstrate the economic efficacy at the commercial level of published Varroa IPM methods. Goal 2: Genetic bee resistance Gene expression of virus- or Nosema-infected and control bees will be compared on whole genome microarrays. Techniques using backcross family segregating for disease resistance will identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) and candidate genes that influence resistance. Molecular techniques will be used to assess genetic diversity of queens from U.S. suppliers, Australia, Russia, from U.S. university programs, and from small micro-breeders across the northern U.S. Small- and mid-sized producers will be surveyed to identify management practices associated with improved genetic diversity. Data from the diversity analysis will let us characterize the distribution of diversity as an aid for breeding. Queens sampled in this study will be placed in colonies and the best performers sent to WSU, Purdue, and Univ Georgia for inclusion in their breeding programs. Goal 3: Improve management of non-Apis Using methods similar to Goal 1 above, we will identify and characterize pathogens of managed non-Apis bees; elucidate lethal and sub-lethal effects of insecticides on non-Apis; and develop recommendations for more efficient use of Bombus impatiens. Goal 4: Deliver knowledge to client groups We will cooperate with ARS to make a joint Community of Practice on eXtension, populating the website with literatures on Best Management Practices for beekeepers and queen breeders. Groundwork for a sustainable market for genetically-improved queens will be encouraged by a series of intensive workshops on improved queen selection and propagation. Documentation of beekeeper adoption of new knowledge streaming from this research will be made by surveying management practices of cooperating beekeepers in six states for four years.

Progress 07/15/08 to 11/14/11

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Experiments were conducted on-schedule for all objectives of the Managed Pollinator CAP, viewable at http://www.beeccdcap.uga.edu/goals/index.html. Experiments on viruses and pathogen diagnostic support for Objective 1.3 was reassigned from Penn State University to the USDA Beltsville Bee Lab. The CAP group held its annual business meetings in 2009, 2010, and 2011 in conjunction with the annual American Bee Research Conference (ABRC). Over these years, CAP projects represented 15-30% of the contributed papers at ABRC, reflecting the high relative output of this scientist consortium. The group initiated in collaboration with ARS, the Bee Health website at eXtension.org http://www.extension.org/bee_health - a central public clearinghouse of science-based bee management recommendations. Among the services provided by this site is a FAQ page, Ask the Expert forum, and a YouTube channel with practical how-to beekeeping instructional videos. In cooperation with Project Apis mellifera (PAm) - an industry-based research support group, our CAP published the first national standards in a Best Management Practices guide, viewable at http://www.extension.org/pages/33379/best-management-practices-bmps-f or-beekeepers-pollinating-California's-agricultural-crops. Members of the group collectively conducted no fewer than 252 educational events or lectures during the reported interval. Members contributed 24 articles to the monthly CAP column published nationally in the trade journals Bee Culture and American Bee Journal. PARTICIPANTS: Keith S. Delaplane, PI, Univ Georgia Frank Drummond, Univ Maine Anne Averill, Univ Massachusetts Brian Eitzer, CT Agric Exp Station Chris Mullin, Penn State Nancy Ostiguy, Penn State Christina Grozinger, Penn State Maryann Frazier, Penn State Jay Evans, USDA Judy Chen, USDA Tom Webster, KY State John Skinner, Univ Tennessee Jamie Ellis, Univ Florida Greg Hunt, Purdue Zach Huang, Michigan State Marla Spivak, Univ Minnesota Lee Solter, Univ Illinois Marion Ellis, Univ Nebraska Kate Aronstein, USDA Kirk Visscher, CA State Riverside Steve Sheppard, Washington State TARGET AUDIENCES: Our target audience is practicing honey bee scientists and extension workers as well as beekeepers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
Nosema ceranae appears to be less virulent than the old Nosema apis which it has largely replaced. Moreover, it appears that neither Nosema synergizes with viruses to increase bee mortality. We have shown that the Varroa mite is a vector of Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. IAPV levels go up as Varroa levels go up, which turns the spotlight toward Varroa as the underlying problem. Bee mortality is negatively impacted as the percentage land use in agriculture increases, but this is not associated with any identifiable trend in pesticide use. National sampling of bee-collected pollen has revealed 130 different residues of pesticides or pesticide metabolites. The average number of residues per bee pollen load is 6.2. In general, this data set is showing the preeminence of Varroa mite, corroborating our lab studies above. High levels of Varroa are associated with high levels of virus and low populations of adult bees and brood. We have shown a high degree (73-93%) of cross-infection of viruses between honey bees and local native bumble bees. Thus the possibility exists for complicated infection > reinfection pathways in nature. Our group has shown the possibility for dangerous (to bees) chemical interactions between agricultural fungicides and two of the most commonly used miticides beekeepers use to control Varroa mite - coumaphos and fluvalinate. This poses a dilemma - our data clearly underscore the importance of controlling Varroa mite - but the remedial chemicals available to beekeepers to control the mite are themselves hazardous if they combine with other environmental toxins. Our group has identified neonicotinoid seed treatments of annual crops as an acute toxic threat to insect pollinators, particularly in the context of dust exposure associated with treated corn seed at spring planting. These compounds become systemic in plants, persist in the environment, and are lethal to bees at the level of parts per billion. Dust released from planters during spring planting has been shown to express concentrations of pesticide one million times higher than that. However, when pesticides are viewed in the aggregate at the national level, residues of pyrethroids - a large class of traditional pesticides and "older" chemistry - pose a 3-fold greater hazard to the colony than neonicotinoids, based on mean and frequency of detection in pollen samples and relative acute toxicity. One of our groups has initiated a Bee Team to assist the California Bee Breeders with on-site stock selection for disease and mite resistance. This has met with triumphant success and interest by participating beekeepers and shows evidence of industry's growing willingness to apply science-based knowledge to solving complicated bee health problems. If our CAP has reached any one overarching conclusion, it is that "bee decline" is a huge issue and not easily reducible to one or a few "causes." It is instead a web of causation, and the answer will involve not only good bee husbandry, but revisions to our land use and pest control habits.

Publications

  • Aronstein, K.A., H.E. Cabanillas, H.E. (ed. Samatarro) Honey Bee Colony Health: Challenges and Sustainable solutions, CRP Press, Taylor and Francis, LLC Chapter 11 Chalkbrood re-examined, pp. 121-130, 2011
  • Aronstein, K. A., Oppert, B and Lorenzen, M.D. (ed. Paula Grabowski) Book RNA Processing, Book Chapter 8: RNAi in the agriculturally important arthropods, in RNA Processing. InTech, pp157-180. 2011.
  • Berry, J.A., W.B. Owens, and K.S. Delaplane. 2010. Small-cell comb foundation does not impede Varroa mite population growth in honey bee colonies. Apidologie 41: 41-44 doi 10.1051/apido/2009049
  • Aronstein, K. A. Detect Nosema Parasite in Time to Save Bee Colonies. 2009. American Bee Journal,150 (1): 63-65, 2010.
  • Aronstein, K.A., .Daniel Murray, K.D., Saldivar, E. Transcriptional responses in Honey Bee larvae infected with Chalkbrood fungus. BMC Genomics, 11:391, 2010.
  • Aronstein, K. A. Detect Nosema Parasite in Time. Bee Culture, Feb. 2010
  • Aronstein K A, and Adamczyk, J. Influence of Genomics: The Post Genomic Era in the Honey Bee Research. . The Journal of the Texas Beekeepers Association. 11(1): 12-17, 2011
  • Aronstein, K. 2010. Managed pollinator CAP coordinated agricultural project. American Bee Journal 150(1): 63-65.
  • Aronstein, K.A., Eduardo Saldivar, E., Webster. T.C. Evaluation of Nosema ceranae spore-specific polyclonal antibodies. Journal of Apicultural Research 50(2): 145-151 (2011).
  • Delaplane, K.S., J.D. Ellis, and W.M. Hood. 2010. A test for interactions between Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) and Aethina tumida (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) in colonies of honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 103(5): 711-715 doi 10.1603/AN09169
  • Delaplane, K.S. 2010. Managed Pollinator Coordinated Agricultural Project CAP. Bee World 87(1): 12-13
  • Delaplane, K.S. 2011. Integrated pest management in Varroa. In Varroa - Still a Problem in the 21st Century International Bee Research Association, Cardiff, UK, pp. 43-51
  • Delaplane, K.S. 2011. Understanding the impact of honey bee disorders on crop pollination. In Honey bee colony health (D. Sammataro and J.A. Yoder, eds.). CRC Press, pp. 223-228
  • Delaplane, K.S. 2009. Action on the CAP grant. Bee Culture 137(11): 28-29
  • Dietemann V., J. Pflugfelder, D. Anderson, J.D. Charriere, N. Chejanovski, J. De Miranda, K.S. Delaplane, F.X. Dillier, S. Fuchs, L. Gauthier, A. Imdorf, N. Koeniger, J. Kralj, W. Meikle, J. Pettis, P. Rosenkranz, D. Sammataro, D. Smith, and P. Neumann. 2012. Varroa destructor: research avenues toward sustainable control. Journal of Apicultural Research, in press
  • Drummond, F., Kate Aronstein, Judy Chen, James Ellis, Jay Evans, Nancy Ostiguy, Walter Sheppard, Marla Spivak, Kirk Visscher. Managed Pollinator Coordinated Agricultural Project, The First Two Years of the Stationary Hive Project: Abiotic Site Effects ABJ, 2012: 369-375 Ellis, M.D. Asessing risks of honey bee exposure to pesticides. American Bee Journal 151(7): 682-683.
  • Heintz, C., Ribotto, M., Ellis, M.D. and K.S, Delaplane. 2011. Best management practices for beekeepers pollinating California agricultural crops. American Bee Journal 151(3): 265-267.
  • Johnson, R.M., M.D. Ellis, C.A. Mullin and M. Fraizer. 2011. Pesticides and honey bee toxicity in the U.S.A. In Honey Bee Colony Heakth. Eds. D. Sammarto and J.A. Yoder. CRC Press. 320 pp.
  • Johnson, R.M., M.D. Ellis, C.A. Mullin and M. Fraizer. 2010. Pesticides and honey bee toxicity U.S.A. (invited review) Apidologie: 41: 312-331.
  • LeConte, Y., M.D. Ellis and W. Ritter. 2010. Varroa mites and honey bee health: Can varroaexplain part of the colony losses (invited review) Apidologie 41: 1-11.
  • Pettis, J.S. and K. S. Delaplane. 2010. Coordinated responses to honey bee decline in the USA. Apidologie 41: 256-263
  • Solter, L.F. 2010. Microsporidia: Friend, Foe (And Intriguing Creatures). American Bee Journal 150, 1147-1149.
  • Solter, L.F. and Huang, W-F. 2010. Sweeter than honey: Honey bee health. Illinois Natural History Survey Reports, Summer Issue No. 404
  • Webster, T and Aronstein, K.A. (ed. Samataro) Honey Bee Colony Health: Challenges and Sustainable solutions (ed. Diana Sammataro): CRP Press, Taylor and Francis, LLC Chapter 10 Nosema ceranae Detection by Microscopy and Antibody Tests, pp.115-120, 2011
  • Williams, G.R., D.R. Tarpy, D. vanEngelsdorp, M.-P. Chauzat, D.L. Cox-Foster, K.S. Delaplane, P. Neumann, J.S. Pettis, R.E.L. Rogers, D. Shutler. 2010. Colony Collapse Disorder in context. BioEssays doi: 10.1002/bies.201000075


Progress 07/15/08 to 07/14/09

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Scheduled research and extension activities are on-target at all cooperating universities. The CAP group has launched a dedicated website at http://www.beeccdcap.uga.edu/ in which viewers can read the complete objectives, methods, and timeline for deliverables. Additionally, the CAP team has spearheaded a July 2009 public launch of the Bee Health Community of Practice http://cop.extension.org/wiki/Bee_Health. This site is part of the eXtension.org network of professional communities offering research-based information across a wide spectrum of ag specialties. PARTICIPANTS: The funded collaborators are presented at our website at http://www.beeccdcap.uga.edu/cap202.html TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience is beekeepers, crop growers, and anyone interested in sustainable pollinator management. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Since the original proposal there have been the following changes to our plans. Cited objective numbers are described in detail at http://www.beeccdcap.uga.edu/. 1. The addition of Jamie Ellis (University of Florida) as a cooperator in the sentinel apiary project (Objective 1.3) 2. The addition of Maryann Frazier (Penn State) as a new researcher on sublethal effects of pesticides on Apis nurse bees and immatures (new Objective 1.8) 3. The change of the Varroa IPM economics appraisal from a field demonstration to an off-season survey (Objective 1.9) 4. The expansion of Objective 2.2 by Nick Calderone to include an appraisal of a university-based multi-trait selection program 5. The addition of John Skinner (University of Tennessee) as a cooperator in the queen breeding extension effort (Objective 4.2) 6. Alterations to the pre- and post-project survey of beekeeper sustainable practices (Objective 4.4) to remove bias probability

Impacts
In 2009, the CAP team was required to re-enter a competitive application process for year 2 funding. This was necessitated by the agency transformation of NRI into AFRI in the new Farm Bill. At press time, the team has been recommended for 50% funding ($500,000) for year 2, the balance pending successful rebuttal of review team critiques. The 50% recommendation was interpreted as evidence that year 1 progress was satisfactory.

Publications

  • In July 2009, three bulletins will be available at the Bee Health Community of Practice website http://cop.extension.org/wiki/Bee_Health: Native Bee Benefits, Best Management Practice Guide for Beekeepers, and Honey Bee Biology. CAP overview presentations have been made by CAP members to the California State Beekeepers Association and American Beekeeping Federation.