Industry. marks breakthrough on winterkill

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1 Research Enhances Consumers And Producers Spring 2013 Newsletter Issue #29 Inside: New Bee Researcher Shelley Hoover will focus on Southern Alberta. page 3 Bee Leafcutter analysis moves from film to digital. page 4 Bee producers target safer, more sustainable chalkbrood control. page 5 Peas research in powdery mildew defense. page 7 writer Kieran Brett Bee Industry marks breakthrough on winterkill Each winter between 2007 and 2009, roughly one-third of Alberta's honeybees died. Supported by ACIDF, timely research and producer management saved the day. Here's how it happened. From where Terry Greidanus is standing, now is a good time to be a beekeeper and honey producer in Alberta. Honey prices and pollination fees are strong and bees are healthier than they've been in years. We have a healthy industry in the province, says Greidanus, who owns and operates Mountainview Honey near Cayley, Alta. and is President of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission. In my own operation, my bees have never been healthier. My winterkill last winter was around 7% to 10%. In many other farm sectors, losing 10% of your assets in a matter of months would be a catastrophe. In beekeeping, which experienced 30% to 40% annual winterkill in recent years, Greidanus' results represent an apicultural victory. He credits timely research intervention, effective extension work and proactive producer engagement with making the difference. If not CCD, then what? In 2006, Alberta's 300 commercial beekeepers had a total of 255,000 active colonies. Hive numbers fell by 30% in 2007, a further 30% in 2008 and a near-cataclysmic 30% in It wasn't just Alberta that was affected. Bee deaths were running far above historical levels across North America. Media began to talk about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a sudden, mysterious and devastating outbreak of honeybee mortality.

2 2 RECAP - Research Enhances Consumers And Producers When we looked closely at our own bee kill and its symptoms, it did not match the symptoms of CCD, recalls Dr. Medhat Nasr, Provincial Apiculturist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD). Rather than just accepting the CCD diagnosis, we decided to take an epidemiological approach to the problem, looking at previous bee health, changes to bee health and what could have caused the sudden change and loss of bees. The evidence pointed to two previously understudied bee health issues: the parasitic varroa mite and nosema disease. With bee health weakened by varroa and nosema, many producers' colonies lacked the vigor to make it through a long, cold Alberta winter. Over the following three years, the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF) provided research funding for two important research projects led by Nasr. One looked at integrated strategies for controlling varroa mite in honeybees, and produced a breakthrough chemical control product. The second project developed a monitoring system for varroa mite and nosema that could be used by Alberta beekeepers. This way, bees could be kept healthy enough during the season to make it through the coming winter. A comprehensive extension program connected producers with this new information on bee health management. Industry emerges bigger, stronger, better prepared As Nasr explains, during the winter of , winterkill was just 10% Alberta-wide, lower than the long-term average. The province now has approximately 275,000 hives, higher than pre-crisis levels. No one who kept bees between 2007 and 2009 will tell you they'd like to go through it all again. Still, the industry now has knowledge, management tools and communication platforms that didn't exist before. There are a few major things that have helped the recovery in bee populations and bee health, says Greidanus. One is the work done by ARD in getting products registered to control varroa mite. The funding contributed by ACIDF for the bee health program was important, as were the extension activities. Personally, I had two or three years back then with winter losses of 40% to 50%. The fact that we now have good bee health in Alberta is a major accomplishment for the industry.

3 RECAP - Research Enhances Consumers And Producers 3 bee researcher Shelley Hoover will focus on Southern Alberta The beekeeping and pollination communities welcome Shelley Hoover, who assumes a new position created by a collaboration involving ACIDF and other industry groups. With opportunities to pursue, and challenges to overcome, Southern Alberta's beekeepers are glad to know that expert help is on the way. On October 1, 2012, Shelley Hoover started a new position as Bee Researcher based at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Lethbridge Research Station. This new position was created and is funded by a oneof-a-kind collaboration involving the Alfalfa Seed Commission (Alberta), the Alberta Beekeepers Commission, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) and the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF). As Bee Researcher for Southern Alberta, Hoover will focus on honeybees, leafcutter bees and canola pollination. My first step will be to engage the honey and leafcutter bee producers and canola industry representatives in dialogue, says Hoover, to determine the priorities of the industry and identify opportunities for collaboration and funding. Hoover earned her doctorate from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., where her thesis examined aspects of worker reproduction in honeybees. As part of postdoctoral research at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, she studied the effects of environmental change on plantpollinator interactions. Most recently, Hoover has been posted at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Farm at Beaverlodge, Alta. In that capacity, she has contributed to a large research effort known as the Bee IPM Project, which has studied queen breeding and stock selection, pest management and beekeeping economics. Looking forward, three priorities As designed by the funding group, the new Bee Researcher position has several major priorities. The first is research to test and develop technologies to assist the honey and leafcutter bee and pollination industries to be competitive and sustainable. This touches on issues such as bee health, pollination and pest management. The position's second priority is to promote networking among various stakeholders in the industry. This includes establishing partnerships, representing ARD at meetings and on committees, attending conferences, lecturing at schools and universities and increasing awareness of the importance of apiculture to agriculture. Finally, Hoover is tasked with defining, capturing and delivering new technology for the growth and improvement of apiculture in Alberta.

4 4 RECAP - Research Enhances Consumers And Producers Industry pleased by new research support If it sounds like her desk is covered with projects already, you're right. Bee producers say they welcome Hoover's arrival and look forward to working with her. We are continuing to struggle with some major diseases such as chalkbrood, says Karl Slomp, who raises leafcutters and grows alfalfa seed near Brooks, Alta. and is President of the Alfalfa Seed Commission (Alberta). As part of this, we are investigating alternatives to paraformaldehyde for chalkbrood control and we hope she can be our resource person on this and other important issues. Cayley, Alta. honey producer Terry Greidanus, President of the Alberta Beekeepers Commission, notes that conditions in Southern Alberta demand someone who's geographically specialized. We have a different beekeeping community in the south, but we haven't had anyone focused on the south in awhile, he says. We are looking for southern focus as it pertains to pollination and honey production. For her part, Shelley Hoover believes now is the perfect time to begin this new venture. The honey, leafcutter bee and pollination industries are facing many challenges, such as new bee pathogens, shifting environmental conditions and a changing landscape, she says. There are also opportunities: new crops requiring pollination and new markets for hive products. I am excited about the opportunity this position represents to build a program of research that is not only beneficial to these industries in Southern Alberta, but also of global scientific relevance. Leafcutter analysis moves from film to digital With support from ACIDF and Alfalfa Seed Producer groups, the Canadian Cocoon Test Centre in Brooks will implement digital x-ray technology this year. Have you seen the price of photographic film lately? For many of us, the answer is not only no but also who cares anyway? After all, most people made the switch to cheaper, more versatile digital technology long ago and haven't looked back. As photographic film companies shrink in size or close their doors altogether, industries that still depend on film are finding themselves vulnerable to supply shortages and price shocks. That's what happened in the fall of 2011, when the Canadian Cocoon Test Centre went to place its annual order of film used to x-ray bee larvae for diagnostic purposes. Bee producers in the three prairie provinces depend on the Centre to provide an informed analysis on issues such as bee numbers, the presence of disease and even the sex ratio of bees in a population. Located at the Crop Diversification Centre (South) in Brooks, Alta., the Centre is important to beekeeping and the commercial sale of bees in Western Canada and into the U.S. The x-ray service usually runs from October to May, explains Bonnie Spragg, Chairperson of the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF) and a leafcutter bee and alfalfa seed producer near Rosemary, Alta. They went to buy their film as usual last fall, and found it was difficult to get enough for the year. They did, just, but that raised a big concern about the future viability of film. Today, ACIDF and the three prairie alfalfa seed producer groups are joining forces to put film out of the picture for good. The group is cost-sharing the purchase and installation of digital x-ray equipment for the Canadian Cocoon Test Centre, including training for a new technician. This will

5 RECAP - Research Enhances Consumers And Producers 5 preserve this important service and provide digital-era versatility in terms of how images can be viewed, shared and archived. Industry rests on leafcutter bees If you ask most people about bees, they'll think immediately about honey. While honeybees play an important role in the province's agriculture industry, the lesser known leafcutter bee is also a major contributor. Leafcutter bees so named because they cut the leaves of plants to make nest cells are native to Western North America. They are the only bee capable of pollinating alfalfa, and thus have become indispensible to Alberta's alfalfa seed production industry. Leafcutters can also pollinate canola and blueberries. Leafcutter bees have been used as pollinators in alfalfa seed production since the 1960s, says Spragg. When this first started, yields of alfalfa seed jumped from 100 lb. per acre to 1,000 lb. per acre. This revolution in productivity, made possible by leafcutter bees, remains the industry's economic foundation to this day. There are currently about 16,000 acres of alfalfa seed production in Alberta growing enough seed for more than 1 million acres of commercial alfalfa production. Beyond its home market, Alberta alfalfa seed serves important markets in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. A necessary transition Karl Slomp, President of the Alfalfa Seed Commission (Alberta) and a producer near Brooks, believes it was high time the Canadian Cocoon Test Centre entered the digital age. The rising cost and diminishing supply of traditional x- ray film posed an operational risk that had to be overcome. When people buy bees, they want to know how many bees they are buying, as live bee numbers can vary greatly per pound, says Slomp. The x-ray can tell you how many bees there are, and how healthy they are. Once you have the x-rays digitized, you can also do a lot more with the images than you can with film. We have needed to go digital for awhile, and this joint-venture funding has made that possible. producers target safer, more sustainable chalkbrood control With funding from ACIDF, producers who work with leafcutter bees are investigating new approaches to managing a damaging disease. Chalkbrood is a disease that's been in southern For leafcutter bee producers, it's hard to know which Alberta since 1985, says Hobbs, who raises is more troubling: the speed with which chalkbrood leafcutters and produces alfalfa seed near can devastate a population, or the health and Lethbridge. It infects leafcutter bees when they environmental drawbacks of tools available to control ingest its spores. One leafcutter cadaver can this disease. contain as many as 250,000 chalkbrood spores, Just ask Weldon Hobbs. His family began working but it only takes as few as 50 germinating spores with leafcutter bees as pollinators for their alfalfa seed to kill a developing bee larva. crops nearly 50 years ago. For about half that time, chalkbrood has been a serious issue.

6 6 RECAP - Research Enhances Consumers And Producers Producers raise health concerns As Hobbs explains, producers had no control options that were specifically approved for leafcutters. The first lines of defence were methods registered for chalkbrood control in honeybees. One technique was to dip bee larva cells and nests into bleach baths. Another strategy was the use of a fumigant known as paraformaldehyde. While the bleaching was unpleasant and time-consuming, the paraformaldehyde could be even worse. The operator could experience symptoms such as stinging eyes and a burning throat, says Hobbs, plus the paraformaldehyde had been shown by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be carcinogenic. Faced with a choice between their bees' health and their own, a number of producers called it quits. By Hobbs' estimate, Alberta's alfalfa seed acreage dropped from 32,000 acres in 1985 to 20,000 acres just a few years later. Fast-forward 25 years, and the demand for pollination by leafcutter bees has grown dramatically. Still essential for alfalfa seed production, leafcutters have also found a role in southern Alberta's high-value hybrid canola seed crops. The problem? The lingering threat of chalkbrood and the persistent lack of leafcutter-specific controls. Is there a better way? In 2011, with funding support from the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF), the Alberta Alfalfa Seed Commission set out to field-test new control measures for chalkbrood in leafcutter bees. One control product was an enzyme derived from egg whites. The second was a probiotic that promotes a naturally occurring organism thought to keep chalkbrood and its spores in check. As one of the project's cooperating producers, Hobbs saw first-hand that some combination of these alternative measures could be effective. While higher levels of chalkbrood infestation could be reversed with paraformaldehyde, the enzyme/probiotic tandem was found to be helpful in maintaining chalkbrood at low levels. This information could form the basis for future minor-use applications for these control methods. It looks as though a number of our members have been able to get chalkbrood down to about a 1% level in the bee population using paraformaldehyde, says Hobbs. You could then use the two new approaches to keep it there. Hobbs notes that the 2011 project wasn't scientifically structured research, simply producers observing and reporting their bees' response to different strategies. For 2012, the project will add a component using isolation tents so that the research findings can be considered scientifically valid. As past Manager of the Alberta Alfalfa Seed Commission, Michelle Gietz believes the introduction of new chalkbrood control methods could be a game-changer for producers who work with leafcutter bees. Paraformaldehyde has been the only available tool for many years, she says. In terms of producer health and the environment, it has been problematic. It's good to know there is the potential for some effective, healthier control alternatives that producers may be able to use in the future. If we can protect the health of producers, achieve good control and protect the environment, that's good news for everyone. Leafcutters in Southern Alberta

7 RECAP - Research Enhances Consumers And Producers 7 powdery mildew defense Supported by funding from ACIDF, Dr. Deng-Jin Bing is making it harder for the disease to damage Alberta's fast-growing pea production. With market prices supportive, and rotations crying out for a broadleaf crop not named canola, peas are attracting more attention these days. In 2012, in fact, Alberta farmers planted 1 million acres' worth of peas. If there's one factor that can spoil the party, however, it's disease. Some pea varieties have relatively little genetic protection against key diseases. Even when such protection is available, the crop is vulnerable to pathogens that inevitably seek a way around its genetic safeguards. Starting in 2011, with project funding from the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF), Dr. Deng-Jin Bing, photo left, set out to shore up peas' genetic defenses against a particularly troublesome disease: powdery mildew. Powdery mildew likes dry and hot weather during the day, especially when there's also some dew in the morning, explains Bing, lead pea breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lacombe. It can especially occur later in the season, after the podfilling stage. In peas, the yield loss can be up to 25%. Target: first-ever resistance in marrowfat peas You might have heard of the British dish known as mushy peas. A staple in Northern England, it's typically served alongside fish and chips. You may have come across a product called wasabi peas a snack food made of dried and roasted peas, seasoned with spicy flavors and popular in Asia. Both these items are made with marrowfat peas.

8 8 RECAP - Research Enhances Consumers And Producers Alberta pulse growers who want to supply these markets have long faced a dilemma: the available marrowfat pea varieties have no genetic resistance to powdery mildew. This agronomic vulnerability was Bing's first order of business. Powdery mildew resistance is already available in yellow and green pea varieties, says Bing. We have to transfer the resistance gene from yellow or green peas to marrowfat. It is not very difficult to transfer this resistance, but you then see quality issues in the marrowfat peas, which have a larger seed size than greens or yellows. We're working on that. Pyramiding multiple resistance genes The powdery mildew resistance in green and yellow pea varieties is viable, but in terms of durability, it's nothing to write home about. As Bing explains, the resistance is conferred by a single gene. In this situation, a biologically dynamic pathogen will try to get past the resistance and infect the plant. Bing's second project goal was to locate additional resistance genes and, using a technique known as pyramiding, introduce one or more of these into Alberta's green and yellow pea varieties. Large-scale production of powdery mildewresistant varieties puts heavy pressure on the pathogen, says Bing. Therefore the pathogen can mutate in order to survive. If we have two or more resistance genes, even if the pathogen mutates, we can still have effective resistance. Over the past year, Bing has verified an additional gene for powdery mildew resistance, setting the stage for a stronger genetic defense in future green and yellow pea varieties. With Alberta growers planting more acres of peas, Lacombe, Alta. producer Craig Shaw welcomes these advances in powdery mildew resistance. Powdery mildew hasn't been a big issue in my area, but as you move into the bigger pea production areas farther east, it has been, says Shaw, an ACIDF Board member and Zone 2 Advisor with the Alberta Pulse Growers' Commission. There's great opportunity in peas as acreage increases, but this disease is really getting farmers in the pocketbook. It's good to know we're making progress. Copyright Copies are available from Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund St. Lacombe, AB. T4L 1W8 Phone: FAX: photos supplied by Dr. Deng-Jin Bing.