Dr. Marla Spivak (Bee Lab, Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota) and Dr. Declan Schroeder (Virologist, Dept of Population Veterinary Medicine, UMN) are seeking a post-doctoral researcher with microbiology and molecular biology skills to assist with honey bee related research related to mechanisms of social immunity and virus transmission. This is a two-year position. We…
Characterization of a new transgenic animal model for in vivo whole-brain imaging at single-neuron resolution. Research goals and tasks: The project is a collaboration between the University of Trento, the University of Düsseldorf, and the CNRS, Paris, to optimize and characterize the first transgenic honeybee model expressing a pan-neuronal calcium sensor (GCaMP6). This will allow minimally…
Background: Honeybees are fascinating social insects, provide pollination services for major crops and many wild plant species, and beekeeping allows the harvest of honey and other valuable products. Land use intensification, climate change, limited availability of floral food resources, and new pests and parasites have change environmental conditions for honeybees and are linked to periodically…
A two-year full-time position is available for a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher for research on honeybee tolerance and resistance to virus infections. The position will be with the bee research group at the Department of Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, Sweden. Duties: The researcher will comprehensively characterize the molecular adaptations…
Context: Over the past 20 years, the substantial and global decline of bees has been alarming as they provide critical pollination services (Goulson et al. 2015). In particular, the mortality of honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera) has attracted a lot of attention due to its important role for human well-being by producing honey, sustaining populations…
This live-streamed conference, “Bees without Borders,” explores the topic of honey bee colonies living on their own, based on the research and experience in francophone countries. The conference will be in French with simultaneous translations into English and German. “Bees Without Borders” takes place on 21 November 2020 (9–16h CET) and is organized by FREETHEBEES in…
The decline of insect pollinators threatens global food security. A major potential cause of decline is considered to be the interaction between environmental stressors, particularly between exposure to pesticides and pathogens. To explore pesticide–pathogen interactions in an important pollinator insect, the honey bee, we used two new nicotinic acetylcholine receptor agonist insecticides (nACHRs), flupyradifurone (FPF)…
Most Varroa induced colony losses occur during the autumn or winter season as a consequence of an elevated Varroa infestation level and an insufficient health status of the adult bees. Even with an initial low Varroa infestation in early spring, critical mite and virus infection levels can be reached before winter if colonies continuously rear…
Several negative factors contribute to a decline in the number of insect pollinators. As a novel approach in therapy, we hypothesize that the EM® for bees could potentially have an important therapeutic and immunomodulatory effect on honey bee colonies. The aim of our study was to evaluate its impact on honey bees at the individual…
Abstract This article presents managed honey bee colony loss rates over winter 2018/19 resulting from using the standardised COLOSS questionnaire in 35 countries (31 in Europe). In total, 28,629 beekeepers supplying valid loss data wintered 738,233 colonies, and reported 29,912 (4.1%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.0–4.1%) colonies with unsolvable queen problems, 79,146 (10.7%, 95% CI…