Cooperative Agreement AP22PPQST00C090

Award Date 9/1/22
Completion Date 8/31/23
Dollars Obligated $56K
Federal Grant Program
10.025
Assistance Type
Cooperative Agreement
Place of Performance
United States

THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THIS AGREEMENT IS TO PROVIDE AN EASILY ACCESSIBLEMONITORING DATA MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR BEEKEEPERS TO PERFORM LONGITUDINALMONITORING FOR VARROA. VARROA DESTRUCTOR, AN INVASIVE MITE COMMONLYREFERRED TO AS THE VARROA MITE, ALONG WITH ITS ASSOCIATED VIRUSES, HASDECIMATED LARGE NUMBERS OF HONEY BEE COLONIES IN THE U.S. SINCE ITSINTRODUCTION IN THE 1980S. THIS PROJECT AIMS TO LEVERAGE THE BIPRESEARCH APP MOBILE AND WEB INTERFACES TO EXPAND AND IMPROVE VARROAMONITORING BY VOLUNTEER BEEKEEPERS AND CITIZEN SCIENTISTS, CURRENTLYBRANDED AS MITECHECK. THE END RESULT WILL BE AN EASILY ACCESSIBLE VARROAMONITORING DATABASE APPLICATION ANYONE CAN USE, FREE OF CHARGE, TO TRACKTHEIR OWN VARROA LEVELS AND VIEW THEM IN THE CONTEXT OF OTHER VARROALEVELS IN THE US BEEKEEPING COMMUNITY, AS WELL AS ADDITIONAL METRICSTHEY RECORD. BEEKEEPERS WILL BE ABLE TO PRACTICE LONGITUDINAL MONITORINGOF VARROA IN THEIR OPERATION, THEIR LOCATIONS, AND INDIVIDUAL COLONIES.BIP WILL ALSO PROVIDE THE ABILITY TO RECORD SOME MINIMAL CONTEXT TO THESE MEASURES, INCLUDING BASIC MANAGEMENT ACTIONS SUCH AS TREATMENT APPLICATION OR REQUEENING. BIP EXPECTS THIS APPLICATION WILL BERELEVANT TO BOTH SMALL SCALE COMMERCIAL BEEKEEPERS AND BACKYARDBEEKEEPERS. THIS COMMUNITY GENERATED DATASET WILL HAVE SOME LEVEL OF BROAD ACCESSIBILITY TO THE HONEY BEE COMMUNITY, WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION, AND WITH TRANSPARENCY INDATA SHARING EXPECTATIONS. THESE ENHANCEMENTS WILL MAKE MONITORINGEASIER FOR BEEKEEPERS AND BOOST DATA COLLECTION ON MITE INFESTATIONSTHROUGHOUT NORTH AMERICA.

Posted 7/5/22, 12:00 AM