Introduction to Honey Bee Health Reed M. Johnson Department of Entomology The Ohio State University 1
Outline Why can t I get a straight answer!!! What does health mean? Colony Collapse Disorder and an overview of honey bee health problems Outline Why can t I get a straight answer!!! What does health mean? Colony Collapse Disorder and an overview of honey bee health problems 2
Honey Bee Colonies are Highly Variable!!! Khoury et al., 2013 3
Case study: Pesticides and Dead Bees dead bee trap http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/2668.htm 4
High variability means that many hives are needed to reliably draw conclusions http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/2668.htm Nobody knows anything. 5
http://beeinformed.org 617 beekeepers (29,235 hives) in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia 6
Outline Why can t I get a straight answer!!! What does health mean? Colony Collapse Disorder and an overview of honey bee health problems 7
Honey Bee Health??? Enough bees to produce boxes of honey Survival Strong enough to fight off parasites Production of bees under dynamic conditions Swarm production Successfully reproduce and grow numbers Lack of viruses 8
Survival = Health? http://beeinformed.org/results/colony-loss- 2013-2014/ Survival Varies (2013-2014) http://beeinformed.org/2014/06/state-by-state-colony-loss-2013-2014/ 9
Weight (kg) Adult Bees (Thousands) 6/30/2014 COLONY POPULATION TARGET PERIOD 60 MAIN NECTAR FLOW 20 Time 300 HONEY PRODUCTION 250 200 150 100 50 0 15,000 30,000 45,000 60,000 Colony Population Farrar, 1937 J. Agric. Res. 10
Pollen collection (almonds) Sheesley and Poduska, 1970 Cal. Agric. Identify disease state Definition 1. Act to reduce disease Achieve a flourishing condition Definition 2. 11
Colony Collapse Disorder Frank Stockton, New York Times, 3/2/07 Lisa Knowling / Bee Culture 12
( CCD ) Colony Collapse Disorder -- In November 2006 Dave Hackenberg lost 400 colonies in Florida -- Other beekeepers experienced similar sudden losses A new disease? - Bees die away from the hive - Queen, brood, food left behind - Scavengers slow to move in??? 13
Disappearing Disease has struck intermittently at least the late 1800's Underwood and vanengelsdorp. 2007. American Bee Journal. 14
Oertel. 1965. American Bee Journal 1966. Gleanings in Bee Culture. theat diseasedisappearing present time is a paper tiger created by the news media. disappearing, Statistically 99.9% isorwas disease hearsay... The number of colonies affected in the limited geographical area represented no more than 0.1% of the coloniesintheus. 15
Kulincevic et al. 1982-1984. Am. Bee J. Disappearing Disease 16
Colony Collapse Disorder Nutrition Feed sugar syrup 17
Feed protein supplements Colony Collapse Disorder Pesticides Nutrition 18
Pesticides? Cox-Foster et al. 2007. Science. 19
Deformed Wing Virus One of 18 bee viruses 20
Varroa destructor 21
Nosema a gut parasite 22
Viruses Colony Collapse Disorder Varroa mites Pesticides Nosema spp. Nutrition Tracheal mites 23
American Foulbrood a bacterial disease Viruses Colony Collapse Disorder Varroa mites Tracheal mites Pesticides Bacterial Diseases Nosema spp. Nutrition 24
Anti-Varroa drugs Anti-Nosema and antibacterial drugs 25
Viruses Colony Collapse Disorder Varroa mites Bacterial Diseases Drugs Nosema spp. Tracheal mites Pesticides Nutrition Viruses Varroa mites Colony Collapse Disorder Disappearing Disease Drugs Tracheal mites Pesticides Bacterial Diseases Nosema spp. Nutrition 26
Cox-Foster et al., 2007 IAPV = Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus KBV = Kashmir Bee Virus N. apis / N. ceranae = Nosema spp. High levels of Nosema ceranae in collapsed colonies in Spain 27
More pathogens (viruses + Nosema) in collapsed colonies Less coumaphos in collapsed colonies More pathogens (viruses + Nosema) in collapsed colonies Increased transcripts possibly related to viral infection 28
VDV / KV / Iridovirus + Nosema in collapsed colonies DWV / APBV + Varroa + old queens associated with collapsed colonies 29
Study Cox-Foster, 2007 Higes et al., 2009 vanengelsdorp et al., 2009 Johnson et al., 2009 Bromenshenk et al., 2010 Genersch et al., 2010 RNA viruses IAPV, KBV KBV, More viruses DWV, More viruses Nosema spp. X N. ceranae X X Other microbe s VDV, kv X Iridovirus DWV, ABPV Varroa Pesticides Other X Less Coumaphos Queen age Summary: 1.Nobody knows anything about bees (unless they re looking at a lot of hives) 2.Health in the flourishing sense is what we want, but health in the free of disease sense is a precondition 3.Bees have many problems 4.Collapsed colonies are associated with a suite of viruses and Nosema (and Varroa?) 30