pan-european assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of stressors on the health of bees

A recently published research article investigates behavioral and reproductive endpoints for pesticide exposure risk assessment. The paper called "Pesticide risk assessment in honeybees: Toward the use of behavioral and reproductive performances as assessment endpoints" reviews the biological interests and ecotoxicology measurements of these endpoints with a focus on pesticide exposure effects on honeybees (Apis mellifera). Honeybees. The article investigates into the...

A recent article published in the leading scientific journal, Science, features the expert opinion of PoshBee researchers on the new European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) honey bee pesticide risk assessment. Article "Holistic environmental risk assessment for bees". The authors of the article, all of whom are researchers in PoshBee, point out that such a strategy has been long awaited and it is celebrated. They outline the strategy's advantage compared to current...

A new booklet titled ‘Working Together for Biodiversity: Tales from the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2015-2020’ was published recently to mark the conclusion of the first phase of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan - an initiative founded by Dr. Úna FitzPatrick of the Irish National Biodiversity Data Centre and PoshBee researcher Prof. Jane Stout of Trinity College Dublin. The booklet was launched by the Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform of Ireland, Malcolm...

New bee health tool: How can it fit your needs? PoshBee is developing a new tool which gives a rapid insight into the health of beehives. The studies conducted by the University of Reading aim to gather beekeepers' and growers' attitudes towards new bee health tools for pollination services. The studies are targeting beekeepers and growers from Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The findings of these surveys will help us support beekeepers...

In light of the travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 PoshBee annual general meeting took place online. Project members and representatives of partner organisations met up online between 12 and 14 January 2021. The three-day long online meeting was marked by insightful presentations, vivid discussions and an overview of the project’s developments and future initiatives. The special interactive online environment provided for the meeting proved to be extremely...

A team of PoshBee researchers lead by Prof. Alexandra-Maria Klein from the University of Freiburg, Germany, performed field and semi-field experiments aiming to measure the effect of chemicals and their interactions with other stressors on bees.   The field experiments were undertaken in an apple orchard near lake Constanz (Germany). The researchers observed honeybees, bombus bees, and mason bees. For the purpose of the semi-field experiments large spaces covered...

    The PoshBee project wishes everybody a prosperous

An article about PoshBee was featured in the November 2020 issue of the Bee Craft magazine. The article titled "Brood day by day: What can we learn?" provides insight on the brood monitoring procedure that is applied in the PoshBee project. Author Matthew Allen of Atlantic Pollination Ltd. describes the process of acquiring comprehensive data on adult and juvenile bee mortality by using image recognition software for monitoring. Within the PoshBee project, the method is used for...

PoshBee wishes you a very happy holiday season and a joyful and prosperous New

An article about PoshBee was featured in the Winter 2020 issue of the Irish Organic Association magazine. The article titled "The Mission of Sustainable Bee Health" presents PoshBee and its main objectives and breakthroughs so far to the auditory of the magazine, which comprises of organic licence holders in Ireland like primary producers, retailers and processors, as well as  policy makers, media, industry, research institutes and relevant stakeholders in food and agriculture....

A research article recently published in the Nature Communications journal provides evidence on the effects on honey bee health caused by exposure to neonicotinoid Clothianidin. The paper called "Neonicotinoid Clothianidin reduces honey bee immune response and contributes to Varroa mite proliferation" presents a verification that exposure of honey bees to this type of insecticide can induce immune suppression in developing bees, resulting in increased feeding and reproduction of the...

Update: Both positions have been filled! SLU has a post-doc position available within its Bee Health Group, one of several positions coming up, for a person with virology and bioinformatic skills. Check out the full details at SLU jobs and look for "Postdoctoral position on honeybee tolerance and resistance to virus infections"  - reference SLU.ua.2020.2.5.1-4277 for more details.  For those interested in PhD positions, search for "PhD student,...

It has been estimated that wild bees contribute to crop pollination as much as honey bees. Moreover, as pollinators of wild plants, wild bees are essential for the maintenance of functioning of ecosystems. A PoshBee experiment, led by a team from Agroscope, aims to track whether wild bees that are well nourished can better cope with stressors such as plant protection products.  "For us to effectively protect and promote bees and their crucial pollination services, it’s...

On 16 September, Jane Stout of Trinity College Dublin spoke about science and policy for pollinator protection at the ReNature Training Course that took place online between 14-16 September. Jane outlined the pollinator decline challenges that Ireland faces and elaborated on the cooperation between scientists and policy-makers for achieving the goals of returning food and shelter for pollinators across public, private and farmed land. Another crucial goal is to achieve ecological balance that...

EcoStack’s second annual meeting took place between 22-23 September 2020. The H2020 project aims to develop and support ecologically, economically and socially sustainable crop production via stacking and protection of functional biodiversity. One topic of discussion during the meeting was the Animal, Landscape and Man Simulation System (ALMaSS) agent-based model system. ALMaSS models different animal species as individuals (agents), which move around inside a virtual landscape to...

This update on the progress of the PoshBee WP7 was provided by Robin Dean. It’s September, and in the beekeeping world, it’s time to treat the bees for varroa which are the parasitic mite devastating bee colonies across the world. Robin of The Red Beehive Co. is putting Apivar strips into one of the PoshBee colonies to ensure they will be fighting fit to start the postponed semi field work for WP7. It might already be autumn, but with the almost record temperatures the...

The PoshBee project is part of the final report of EIP-AGRI’s Focus Group on bee health and sustainable beekeeping. Experts from the Agricultural European Innovation Partnership (EIP-AGRI) Focus Group have explored the question how can the sustainability of beekeeping be ensured in the face of challenges linked to pests and diseases, intensification of agriculture and climate change. Cover of the final report of EIP-AGRI’s Focus Group on bee health and sustainable...

Pollinators play a vital role in maintaining both semi-natural and agricultural ecosystems and healthy populations bolster food security, livelihoods and social wellbeing. With evidence that many species of pollinators are in decline, their conservation and management is of great public, economic and political interest. As a result, the ecology and conservation of managed and wild pollinators is a rapidly growing field of research, alongside the study of their associated ecosystem services....

This feature was provided by Matthew J Allan, ATPOLL: Atlantic Pollination Ltd. This sequence of photos from the PoshBee semi-field studies team shows the development of one frame of honeybee brood, from eggs to larvae to prepupae to pupae to emerged adult, and then the cycle starts again. The photos follow the recommendations of OECD Guidance Document 75, designed to detect subtle impacts of chemicals and other stressors on brood. In this example, we can accurately follow the life of each...

PoshBee's partner Jane Stout, Trinity College Dublin, co-chaired a session at this year's SETAC Europe meeting that took place online from 3 to 7 May 2020.  The session entitled "Bees, Bugs and Beneficials in Environmental Risk Assessment and Testing" was co-chaired together with fellow scientists Ivo Roessink, Jacoba Wassenberg, and Stefan Kimmel and focused on providing a balanced overview of ongoing developments in pollinator and non-target arthropod risk...