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

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...

PoshBee’s long-term objective is to support sustainable beekeeping and healthy bee populations, including wild bees. Similarly to its effect on many other areas of life, the current pandemic situation poses a challenge for the project. Robin Dean of The Red Beehive Company in the UK addresses some of the challenges he and his team are experiencing. One hindrance for Robin is that he cannot recruit staff members in the current situation, because of the challenge of maintaining...

Snippet from "The Insect Rescuer". Photo credit: ZDF. "One could imagine a world without insects, but this world would never function". These words of Josef Settele, a German lepidopterist, serve as an opening of "Die Insektenretter" (in English: "The Insect Rescuer"). This episode of the Planet E documentary focuses on the decline of insects and potential ways to address the issue. Research publications have identified five...

Bee hive. Photo credit: Frank Meriño. PoshBee’s fourth practice abstract has been published on the EIP-AGRI platform and is now available for you to read here. Based on his experience, Norman Thürmer of the Imkerverband Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. shares recommendations aiming to maximize the efficiency of the work invested in the project. Some of these suggestions include: Thorough planning of the bee purchasing. Appointing a fixed contact person for all...

Group photo from PoshBee's second annual meeting. PoshBee’s Second General Assembly Meeting took place between 14 and 16 January in Marseille, France and united more than 80 participants, including scientists, beekeepers, farmers, practitioners and other stakeholders from across Europe. The discussions and workshops focusing on the project developments paved the way towards enhancing the sustainable health of bees and pollination services in Europe. The progress,...

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

Bees on a flower. Photo credit: Michael Hodgins. PoshBee’s long-term objective is to support sustainable beekeeping and healthy bee populations, including wild bees. One of the aspects leading to this objective is the successful communication, knowledge transfer and dissemination of the project updates and results. As part of the promotional and dissemination toolset of the project selected to make the results of PoshBee available across stakeholders and the general...

Presentation given by PoshBee coordinator Prof. Mark Brown. PoshBee coordinator Mark Brown (Royal Holloway, University of London, England) alongside researchers Marion Laurent (ANSES Sophia-Antipolis Laboratory, France) and Chris Topping (Aarhus University, Denmark) presented at the Anses/EFSA International Bee Health Conference in Paris on the 9 December 2019. The meeting was a fascinating opportunity to see PoshBee contributing to the evidence-based conversation on bee...

PoshBee presentation in Varna. The PoshBee project, financed by the EU Horizon 2020, was presented to Moldovian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Romanian, and Ukranian beekeepers and representatives of beekeeping organisations on the International Fair of apiculture products Varna 2019. The event took place between 17 and 19 September 2019 in Varna, Bulgaria Viktoria Nikolova, a manager of Varna’s district information point, introduced the PoshBee’s aims and new technologies as part...

The first Annual Meeting of Horizon 2020 project EcoStack took place from 15 to 17 October 2019 and was hosted by the University of Coimbra, Portugal. EcoStack are aiming to develop functional methods to incorporate multiple ecosystem services within agricultural landscapes.  PoshBee's coordinator, Mark Brown, attended the event where a great potential for productive collaborations between PoshBee and EcoStack have been identified and are currently pursued. Keep your ears...

Trinity College Dublin is seeking programmers for a post-doctoral research assistant (PDRA) position to develop an agent-based model for bumble bees, to complement similar models for honey bees and solitary bees, contribute to integrative analysis of bee health and production of tools for risk assessment, and develop a multi-species Environmental Risk Assessment tool, as part of the PoshBee project. The successful applicant who will be based in the research group of...