Source: PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
THE BEE INFORMED PLATFORM (BIP): A NATIONWIDE NETWORK FOR MONITORING AND MAINTAINING HONEY BEE HEALTH AND POLLINATION SERVICES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0224792
Grant No.
2011-67007-30355
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
2011-05839
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
May 15, 2011
Project End Date
May 14, 2013
Grant Year
2011
Program Code
[A5131]- Global Food Security: Program Delivery and Implementation of Wide-area Pest Monitoring
Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
208 MUELLER LABORATORY
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802
Performing Department
Entomology
Non Technical Summary
The Bee Informed Platform is an extension project that endeavors to decrease the number of honey bee colonies that die over the winter. Managed honey bees are important to our agricultural security because many fruits, nuts, vegetables, and other crops require bee pollination to ensure production of quality produce. Unfortunately the rate of mortality suffered by colonies over the last 4 winters has been unsustainably high, threatening the livelihoods of not only the beekeepers who manage bees, but those who rely on bees for pollination. The project proposes to help beekeepers keep colonies alive by initiating several levels of surveys. These surveys will document which management practices beekeepers use and the degree of loss suffered by beekeepers. Using methods developed by human epidemiologists, we will compare the effectiveness of different management practices by calculating and comparing the losses suffered by those that did or did not use a particular management practice. In recognition of the fact that the most appropriate management practices for a beekeeper in one region is not necessarily the same for beekeepers in other regions, we will develop web and app based tools that will allow beekeepers to interact with the survey data to permit them to compare management practices among groups of beekeepers that share their geography, purpose (e.g. honey production, pollination), and/or management philosophy (e.g. minimal pesticide use). To facilitate this level of engagement we will develop a honey bee health database that will act as a repository for all honey bee health data collected from this and other bee health surveillance projects. This project is motivated by the conviction that beekeepers, when presented with beekeeper derived data that objectively shows which management practices worked and which did not, will adopt the more successful practices. This in turn will reduce colony losses, and increase the availability of pollinating units overall.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
3113010117020%
3113010301010%
3113010303010%
6013010301010%
9033010117020%
9033010301010%
9033010303010%
2163010117010%
Knowledge Area
601 - Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management; 311 - Animal Diseases; 216 - Integrated Pest Management Systems; 903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
3010 - Honey bees;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics; 1170 - Epidemiology; 3030 - Information and communication;
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of the Bee Informed platform is to decrease the mortality rate of managed honey bee colonies in the US. Core to the success of the program is the ability to establish a platform by which stakeholders can communicate (that is, gain and convey knowledge)in an interactive manner to evaluate and improve their beekeeping management strategies. Our approach embraces the underlying extension philosophy of empowering stakeholder groups to make their own individual, informed decisions. The creation of this program will have positive educational and economical impacts on the beekeeping industry in the US. To fulfill this goal, we will develop a nationwide network for monitoring, reporting, and sharing data on honey bee health and economic impact. This will be accomplished by fulfilling the following objectives: Objective 1: Construct and maintain a comprehensive, accurate, timely, and dynamic Honey Bee Health Database Objective 2: Initiate, evaluate, and sustain surveys on colony mortality, pathogens, and parasites, as well as beekeeper management strategies, costs, and outputs Objective 3: Develop interactive web-based interfaces for the Honey Bee Health Data Base Objective 4: Promote model best management practices that are evidence-based Objective 5: Implement a pollinator quality/availability reporting system Objective 6: Evaluate project impact and initiate an emerging issues alert system
Project Methods
The Bee Informed Platform aims to decrease the rate of colony mortality, thereby increasing the profitability of beekeepers and pollinator dependent producers. The proposed nationwide network will monitor and document colony health and management practices using a multi-tiered system. Monitoring efforts will include annual winter-loss surveys (tier 1), documenting management practices ex facto (tier 2), real-time monitoring of mortality and management practices (tier 3), recording stakeholder-determined parasite and pathogen levels (tier 4), in-depth monitoring conducted by trained Crop Protection Agents (CPAs) (tier 5), and monitoring pollinator unit availability (tier 6). The comprehensive information generated from these efforts will be stored in a database that will also act as a repository for honey bee health data collected from historical and other ongoing efforts. Utilizing this rich dataset, a novel and interactive web-based interface will enable beekeepers to objectively evaluate the success of management practices and compare their own disease levels with historical levels. This will encourage the adoption of more sustainable management systems in the apiculture industry. This proposal intends to maximize inclusiveness (e.g., participation of backyard and sideline beekeepers who make up the majority of the industry) while, at first, concentrating resources on a relatively small group of stakeholders whose early involvement in the Bee Informed Platform is likely to positively influence adoption by other stakeholders - those whose improved operational "success" is likely to have pronounced effect on other operations (e.g., queen and package bee producers), or on the availability of pollinator units (e.g., large operations pollinating CA almonds), or on both. The experience gained from these activities will act as a model for a national effort that will be built on a cost recovery self sustaining model.

Progress 05/15/11 to 05/14/13

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Objective 1: Construct and maintain a comprehensive, accurate, timely and dynamic Honey Bee Health Database 1.Database design 1.1. Structure conceptually conceived and many component parts developed 1.2. Security protocols implemented 1.3. National Honey Bee Disease survey data incorporated (>425 records) 1.4. Historical Honey Bee Disease diagnostic data incorporated (28,000 records) and efforts to incorporate hard copy data ongoing (50,000 records) 2.Completed database coding (backend) for a unified model for storing all sample data from all teams and institutions. 3.Winter Loss and Management surveys completed using our own hosted survey software. This gives Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) surveys the functionality needed for instant feedback to participants (Tier 3) 4.Satistical analysis of 2012 Management Survey data underway 5.Beeinformed.org website launched including 169 blog posts. 6. Integration of Bee informed with eXtension.org/bee_health 7.Facebook Stream interface developed 8. Email lists generated 9. Transfer of data and hosting of Honeybeenet.org (http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/ rebuild at http://honeybeenet.org/ is near completion Objective 2: Initiate, evaluate, and sustain surveys on colony mortality, pathogens, and parasites, as well as beekeeper management strategies, costs and outputs 1. Tier 1: 2011-2012 Winter loss survey - 5,800 respondents 2. Tier 2: 2011-2012 Management survey - 3,500 respondents 3. Tier 5: Longitudinal monitoring of potential queen breeder stock 3.1. Bee Team established in northern CA (UC Cooperative Extension, Butte County) and Midwest (U of MN) 4.0. Tier 6: Pollination availability Survey conducted 2011 ( n= 24, Abstract released) Survey conducted 2012 (n=16, abstract in preparation) Objective 3: Develop interactive web-based interfaces for the Honey Bee Health Database: 3.1.BIP database structure in development 3.2.Web based interfaces for some database components in advanced development and testing phase 3.3.Completed the user interface (frontend) for Beltsville Research Lab (BRL) to switch from its old sample tracking system to sample tracking using BIP 3.4.Completed automatic generation of BRL sample diagnostic report which is returned to beekeepers who send in samples for analysis. 3.5. Incorporated data from the California Bee Team. Approx 3800 recorders representing approx 10,000 samples from queen breeders 3.6.Automatic generation of Queen Breeder Summary report is underway and is on track for testing by September 2012. Objective 5: Implement a pollinator quality/availability reporting system 5.1.Baseline data collected through Tier 6 survey with 3 years of data for comparison. PARTICIPANTS: Project Directors: Kathy Baylis (U of Illinois): Supervised economic analysis and leading business model development; Joseph Connell and Susan Donohue(UCCE): Supervised CA Tech transfer team; Keith S. Delaplane (University of Georgia): Coordinate with eXtension and CAP grant; Wayne Esaias (NASA): coordinate with Honeybee net; Eugene Lengerich (PSU Hershey) Supervised application of statistical and Epidemiological methods; Jeff Pettis (USDA-ARS): coordinate historical disease diagnostic report samples; Robyn Rose (USDA_APHIS): Coordinate APHIS honey bee disease survey; John Skinner (UT): Supervise web development and presence; Marla Spivak (U of MN): Coordinate with CA tech transfer team; David R. Tarpy (NCSU): Supervise viral sample analysis; Dennis vanEngelsdorp (PSU): Project director - supervise and coordinate all projects; James Wilkes (App State): Supervise Database development. Personnel: Michael Andree, Katie Lee, Rob Snyder (UCCE): Tech transfer team; Sridevi Azhakanandam (NCSU): Viral sample analysis; Rachel Bozarth, Heather Eversole, Anna Willson, Jennie Stitzinger, Karen Roccasecca (PSU/UMD): Alcohol sample kit preparation, sample analysis, and report generation; Robyn Underwood (PSU/UMD): Report and publication writer and editor; Mark Henson (App State): Software development; Karen Rennich (PSU/UMD): Project Manager: Administration, sample lab coordinator; Michael Wilson (UT): Web page administrator. Students: Jessica Pasciak (u of Ill; master's student): Economics; Angela Spleen (PSU Hershey, P.Hd. Candidate): Epidemiology and loss reporting; Charlie Jonas, Taylor Doshar, Ben Drummer (App State; Undergraduate Students): Programing and database development. Partner Organizations: Project Apis Mellifera (Help promote project, help development of sustainability plan); USDA-ARS Beltsville bee Lab (source of historical data); USDA-APHIS (source of disease survey data); Apiary inspectors of America (Promote survey); American Beekeeping federation, American honey producers, Eastern Apicultural society, Western Apicultural society, Heartland Apicultural society: (promote survey, disseminate information); Almond Board of California (Science and stakeholder advisory board); COLOSS (Science advisory board); Hawaii Department of Agriculture: (Tech transfer team HI). TARGET AUDIENCES: Social networking and outreach: Beeinformed.org website: 40,134 unique visits from 1 year period of May 16, 2011 to May 16, 2012; 104,259 page views from 1 year period of May 16, 2011 to May 16, 2012: 12,838 unique visitor and 30,784 page views during 30 days, representing the 2012 management survey period (March 26 - April 25, 2012): YouTube Channel (8 Videos, 1,687 Views, 11 Subscribers); Facebook Stream interface (548 subscribers, Weekly Total People Reached: 1,287); Email lists (6,404 email address contacts); Extension talks: The Bee Informed Partnership: What works and What doesn't. American Honey Producers Association Annual meeting. Phoenix, AZ January 7 2012 (estimated audience: 250),Alabama State beekeepers (Webinar). January 12, 2012. Skype talk. (estimated audience: 50), American Beekeeping Federation Annual Meeting. Las Vegas. January 13, 2012. (estimated audience: 350), Swedish Beekeepers Association Annual Meeting. Webinar. February 12, 2012. (estimated audience: 100), Maryland State Beekeepers Association Winter meeting. West Friendship, MD. February 18, 2012. (estimated audience: 150), Delaware State Beekeepers Association. Dover, DE. March 17, 2012. (estimated audience: 70), Brushy Mountain Bee farm Bee Educated series. Webinar. March 27, 2012. (estimated audience: 300), San Diego Area beekeepers Association. Webinar. April 8th, 2012. (estimated audience: 72), North Carolina State Beekeepers Association, Spring meeting (438 people); The California Tech Transfer team progress report. The California Queen Producers. Chico, CA. January 18, 2012. (estimated audience: 30), Callifornia Queen Producers: Sample collected and processed: (May 2011 - May 2012):Total # samples: 6866, # hygienic tests: 789, # Varroa samples: 2700, # Nosema samples: 2747, # Virus samples 630 PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Project being transferred to UMD.

Impacts
1) Significant and measurable improvements to US beekeeping profitability and sustainability Baseline data has been collected through Tier 1, 2 and 6 survey efforts. 2) Measurable increases in the number of pollinating units available for a growing demand for pollinator-dependent crops As an initial step to increasing the number of pollinating units, we first must understand how many units are available in any given year and the reasons for limitations on that number. This year's Tier 6 survey provided a second year of baseline data which will used to measure future trends. 3) Documentable declines in superfluous pesticide and antibiotic applications in US beekeeping This will be documented through the Tier 2 Management Surveys. This survey was conducted on April 1, 2011 and again on April 1, 2012. The baseline data is now in place to monitor, compare and report on this decline in future years. 4) The training and inauguration of specialist apicultural crop-protection agent teams There are currently 4 trained crop protection agents. Three are now working in Butte County, CA. The crop protection agents interact daily with approximately 16 queen breeders providing disease and pest data for those breeders to make near real time decisions on breeder stock selection. The 4th crop protection agent is leading up the newest Midwest Bee Team to work with large commercial migratory beekeepers. We anticipate a second person will join the midwest team in September. 5) The consolidation of data from a diverse range of historical and ongoing bee health-monitoring schemes into a common forum We have begun to import over 10 years worth of honey bee disease diagnostic data from the USDA-ARS Beltsville Bee Research Laboratory into the database and have imported 99% of the electronic records dating back from 1984. Data from the last 2 years of APHIS funded National Honey Bee Disease survey has been incorporated, and data from this year's survey is being added. Survey data from Tier 1 and 2 surveys are incorporated. Furthermore, we have made significant progress towards making automatic analysis of future survey responses. 6) A professionally-generated strategy and execution plan for sustaining these initiatives beyond the life of this CAP Bee Informed Partnership team members at the University of Illinois have students in a senior level economics course developing a BIP business plan as a class project. The collection of cost data needed to inform this business plan has been collected from the CA Bee Team and the economic data relating to treatment options (product, number of applications, cost savings, etc.) have also been gathered this year. PAm (www.projectapism.org) has agreed and is operating as the Bee Informed Partnership bank until our future sustainable business model is finalized and operational. To date, several deposits have been made to this account. Quarterly reports from PAm will be sent to us to track the accounting of early donations and payments of the 4th Bee Team member.

Publications

  • vanEngelsdorp, D., R. Brodschneider, Y. Brostaux, R. van der Zee, L. Pisa, R. Underwood, E. J. Lengerich, A. Spleen, P. Neumann, S. Wilkins, G. E. Budge, S. Pietravalle, F. Allier, J. Vallon, H. Human, M. Muz, Y. Le Conte, D. Caron, K. Baylis, E. Haubruge, S. Pernal, A. Melathopoulos, C. Saegerman, J. S. Pettis, and B K. Nguyen. 2012. Calculating and reporting managed honey bee colony losses in Honey Bee Colony Health: Challenges & Sustainable Solutions (eds. Sammataro and Yoder), Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis pp. 229-236.
  • vanEngelsdorp, D., D. Caron, J. Hayes, R. Underwood, K. R. M. Henson, A. Spleen, M. Andree, R. Snyder, K. Lee, K. Roccasecca, M. Wilson, J. Wilkes, E. Lengerich, and J. Pettis. 2012. A national survey of managed honey bee 2010-11 winter colony losses in the USA: results from the Bee Informed Partnership. Journal of Apicultural Research 51:115-124.
  • vanEngelsdorp, D., D. R. Tarpy, K. Baylis, M. Spivak, D. M. Caron, J. Connell, K. S. Delaplane, S. Donohue, W. Esaias, B. Gross, J. Hayes Jr., E.. Lengerich, J. Pettis, K. Rennich, R. Underwood, R. Rose, J. Skinner, and J. Wilkes. 2012. The Bee Informed Partnership: Using beekeepers real-world experience to solve beekeepers real-world problems. American Entomologist (In Press).