pan-european assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of stressors on the health of bees
Pollinators play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity and agricultural production worldwide, but they are susceptible to various infectious and parasitic agents (IPAs). To better assess the exposure of honey bees to IPAs, researchers have developed discriminative and quantitative molecular methods. These methods produce large datasets that need to be summarised for interpretation. Graphical abstract of the paper. A new PoshBee paper describes the calculation of three types of...
Since its beginning in 2018, PoshBee has been working on transforming its scientific results into practical recommendations. In that spirit, the project has published a total of 16 practice abstracts on the EIP-AGRI platform presenting the practical implications of its results. These concise pieces of information cover the project's full life cycle, from its objectives (presented in practice abstract 1) to its results. In March 2023, to finalise its collection, the project published two new...
During PoshBee’s final meeting in March 2023, project members were surprised with an unexpected outcome from the project’s semi-field experiments. PoshBee partner Robin Dean prepared a gift bag for everyone with goodies made from PoshBee beeswax. The goodies came with some handy instructions on how to use the wax to create a boot waterproofer, a lip balm or a hand cream. PoshBee beeswax and tealights, wrapped in a compostable cellophane bag and a raffia tie. This was...
Pesticides pose a potential threat to bee health, which could be exacerbated when combined with other stressors, such as parasites. Current pesticide risk assessment however evaluates pesticide impact on otherwise healthy bees without accounting for these additional stressors. To understand the specific impacts of pesticides and their interactions with other stressors, a new PoshBee paper tested acute oral doses of three pesticides — glyphosate, Amistar and sulfoxaflor — on the...
On 22 and 23 March 2023, five years after PoshBee’s kick-off meeting in Paris, project partners and stakeholder advisory committee members gathered for a bitter-sweet final meeting in Rome. It is fair to say that after two online annual meetings, partners were more than happy to gather in person and create that PoshBee buzz in the room one final time. PoshBee partners at the final meeting in Rome, Italy. Hosted by project partner Coldiretti, the meeting was officially opened by...
A recent study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences has developed molecular signatures reflecting the health status of the buff-tailed bumblebee – Bombus terrestris. The study aimed to better understand the impact of environmental stressors on the health of pollinators, so crucial for maintaining biodiversity in ecosystems and agriculture. Omics workflow (seven steps from experimental infection to data processing) applied to Bombus terrestris. The...
The connection between diet and pesticide resistance in bees have recently received attention, both in PoshBee and outside. When experimentally testing pesticide risk to bees, only pollen generalists are used. What about pollen specialist (oligolectic) species? A new PoshBee paper introduces the wallflower mason bee (Osmia brevicornis) as a potential model species to study the effects of pesticides on a bee specialised on the cabbage family, including the common European field crop oilseed...
Weather conditions are an important driver of pollinator activity and with global climate continuing to change, researchers ponder the question of how the changing weather patterns affect the relative contributions and importance of different pollinator groups. To understand what might happen in the future, it is important to first understand how bees respond to current weather conditions. To find out more about this question, a recent study co-funded by PoshBee conducted in Ireland observed...
In the spirit of delivering practice-relevant research outputs, PoshBee issues a stakeholder summary for each published research paper, focusing on the publications’ main outcomes with practical value. To provide stakeholders with a comprehensive overview of the project’s summaries, PoshBee prepared a new "Stakeholder summaries booklet". PoshBee Stakeholder summaries The booklet contains PoshBee’s 19 stakeholder summaries produced thus far, 15 of...
In October 2022, Eleanor Attridge (PoshBee partner from the Federation of Beekeepers of Ireland Associations [FIBKA]) won the annual UK National Honey Show essay competition on the topic of "Lifecycle of the Varroa Mite". Essay by Eleanor Attridge, published in BBKA News. The Varroa mite is the most significant threat to honey bees’ survival, weakening their immune system, which can lead to very high winter losses. Eleanor’s essay discusses its life...
PoshBee’s open access collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal continues to grow, with its latest publication being the project’s Milestone 15 Protocols for semi-field and field experiments. PoshBee study frame. In contrast to the conventional study design where bees are exposed to one stressor or product alone to assess its effects, PoshBee carried out several semi-field and field studies exposing bees to more than one stressor, for example, a fungicide...
On 24 January 2023, the European Commission presented 'A New Deal for Pollinators' revising the 2018 EU Pollinators Initiative. This new deal comes in response to increasing calls to improve pollinator conservation and tackle the causes of their decline and its consequences on food security, human health, quality of life and ecosystems. The revised Pollinators Initiative sets objectives for 2030 and related actions under three priorities: I: Improving knowledge of pollinator...
Since PoshBee started back in June 2018, project members have published an impressive number of valuable scientific publications providing insights on how to support healthy bee populations, beekeeping and pollination across Europe. With the project ending in May 2023, PoshBee decided it was only fitting to look back and appreciate all the papers published over the last five years. Search for the hashtag #PoshBeeWrapUp to find out more. ��Hard to believe almost 5 years have...
2023 started with an action-packed January for PoshBee. On 11 and 12 January, with less than 6 months left in the project, partners met up in GatherTown to make sure there would be nothing but smooth sailing until the Final project meeting in March and ultimately, PoshBee’s end in May. The two-day workshops covered a wide area of topics, ranging from the coordination of upcoming publications and open access guidelines to ensuring overall project objectives are met through strategic...
In our new video, we take a look back to appreciate our 2022 highlights!
Season's greetings!
This press release was published by EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo. To make its scientific results more accessible, the Horizon 2020 research project PoshBee (GA No. 773921) issues a stakeholder summary for each published research output. PoshBee (Pan-european assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of stressors on the health of bees) aims to support healthy bee populations and sustainable beekeeping. In this context, successful cooperation between diverse stakeholder groups is...
PoshBee is happy to share its social media campaign presenting a number of projects, associations, information hubs and national strategies protecting pollinators. Across Europe, there are many initiatives working towards protecting pollinators and improving their health. In order to highlight their work, PoshBee conducted an ‘Initiatives’ social media campaign briefly presenting them. [1/2] 🔙Some time ago, we introduced our webpage dedicated to some of the projects,...
The annual UK National Honey Show took place on 27–29 October 2022 in Surrey, England. It is the UK's premier honey show with international classes, lecture conventions and workshops. With its nearly two hundred and fifty competitive classes, the show attracts beekeepers from around the world eager to compete for the coveted trophies and prize cards. Among this year’s winners was a PoshBee partner from the Federation of Beekeepers of Ireland Associations (FIBKA)....
On 12 November 2022, London had its annual Lord Mayor's Show, which goes all the way back to the early 13th century. This event is an opportunity for a review of all the charities supported by the Lord Mayor and the livery companies in the city. One of the charities is Pollinating London Together – a panlivery initiative that is raising awareness of the importance of biodiversity and pollinators, and their substantial recent decline. The bee mansion built by Robin Dean....