bee viruses

26 November 2021

Bee viruses became a hot topic in the past years when talking about bee health. Especially DWV – as an associate with varroa mites. It’s one of the few viral infections in honey bees with clear symptoms. Though… you see them when it’s already to late. Crippled wings are a symptom not only for the…

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engineered bacteria, varroa treatments, bee health

14 February 2020

The finding that engineered bacteria could help against varroa and the Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) made a big buzz. These bacteria, Snodgrassella alvi, live naturally in the bee gut. Leonard et al. modified them to produce double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), which should interfere with crucial viral and varroa genes. Sounds crazy. But let’s go step by…

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nest choice, parasites, non-managed bees, solitary bees

31 January 2020

The meaning of life, one of my professors at the university said, is to maintain yourself alive and to procreate. This may seem simplistic and against all what I usually write in this blog. And definitely not as surprising and puzzling as “42”. However, it came to my mind while reading a very exciting paper…

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bee nutrition and parasites

18 October 2019

Bee nutrition and parasites are getting quite some attention these days. Which I’m very happy about, as I prefer to see bee health in a broader context than only the absence of diseases. I discussed this already in some posts like recently the one on honey bee welfare or the One Health Concept and the…

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EFSA bee guidance, pesticides, bees, pollinators, Regulation plant protection | BeeSafe

5 August 2019

The EFSA bee guidance exists since 2013. From the very beginning, it has produced discussions, harsh criticism as well as positive voices. This guidance gives a framework for the registration of pesticides, for all the studies, evaluations and data in the dossiers. However, it wasn’t implemented until now. In July, the European Commission (EC) instructed…

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bee diseases, Managed bees, bee health, one health, bumblebees, honey bees

19 July 2019

Managed bees, as we saw in the last post, can have a negative effect on wild bee populations. However, though honey bees are the best-known pollinator, they’re not the only managed bee species. Bumblebee rearing is common in Europe since the early 1980s. They’re used mainly for tomatoes or other crops that need buzz-pollination. And…

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