The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded a $749,720 Project Grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) (CFDA 10.310) to Mississippi State University (MSU). The grant aims to understand how honey bees interact with viruses at the individual and cellular levels, with the goal of identifying genetic markers that indicate resistance to viral infections. The project will initially focus on studying the performance of...
The Bee Informed Partnership, Inc. will receive a $142,676 cooperative agreement award from the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care federal grant program (CFDA 10.025). Through this funding, the Bee Informed Partnership will determine the composition, diversity, and recombination rates of deformed wing virus variants in honey bee and Varroa mite populations across U.S. commercial...
This $750,000 Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310), will fund research to develop a new approach for protecting honey bees against viruses that threaten colony health and pollination services. The project combines expertise in engineered gut symbionts, peptide secretion systems, and honey bee physiology to continuously deliver antiviral peptides within the bee digestive tract....
This cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will provide $219,718 to the University of Maryland, College Park through April 30, 2023. The funding supports survey, sampling, and diagnostic analysis to examine the relationship between in-colony wax varroacide residues and varroa mite resistance. Specifically, the University will utilize the USDA's existing honey bee health surveillance program to collect beeswax and varroa mites...
This USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) Project Grant award in the amount of $3,942,159 will fund research to address the critical challenge of varroa mite control for managed honey bee colonies that provide essential pollination services to specialty crops like almonds, blueberries, and pumpkins. The research team led by The Ohio State University, with sub-awards to partners including Auburn University, UC Davis, University of...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $255,262 Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I Project Grant to IF, LLC of Stoughton, WI for the period of January 15, 2022 through December 31, 2022. The grant supports the development of an Automated Continuous Varroa Mite Monitor for Honeybee Hive Health under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041). The Engineering program seeks to improve quality of life and economic strength through fostering innovation in engineering research and education....
Texas A&M Agrilife Research will conduct research on wild honey bee populations through a $105,189 project grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The two-year project aims to analyze genetic diversity levels and temperature tolerance of wild Africanized honey bees at the Welder Wildlife Refuge in Texas to identify potential sources of genetic stock for...
This $180,000 Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) under the Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care program (CFDA 10.025) aims to enhance honeybee health. The primary objectives are to detect new invasive pests (Tropilaelaps sp.) and assess the spread of insecticide resistance in the major honeybee pests, the Varroa mite and Small Hive Beetle. The award was made to Florida A&M University, a...
The Regents of the University of California at Riverside received a $297,139 two-year Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The grant will fund research to quantify innate and social immunity responses in honey bees tolerant of Varroa mites, a significant parasite, compared to susceptible managed bee genotypes. Researchers will conduct behavioral,...
The University of California, Riverside received a $930,000 Project Grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (CFDA 10.332) to conduct research on heat resilience in honey bee populations. The key objectives of this 3-year project are to: 1) identify commercially viable honey bee stocks that are resilient to heat, 2) determine the physiological mechanisms governing sex- and stock-specific heat resilience, and 3) develop genetic...
RECENT COLONY LOSSES EXPERIENCED BY BEEKEEPERS ARE UNSUSTAINABLE, AND CONTINUE TO ACCELERATE, REACHING ANNUAL AVERAGES OF 25-50% COLONY MORTALITY FOR MOST PARTS OF THE US IN 2020/2021 (SEE MAP BELOW). DEFORMED WING VIRUS (DWV) IS A PRINCIPAL PATHOGEN OF HONEY BEES, AND DWV LEADS TO DEVASTATING MORPHOLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, IMMUNOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL IMPACTS THAT KILL SYMPTOMATIC BEES, WEAKENS, REDUCE THE LIFESPAN AND ALTERS THE BEHAVIOR OF ASYMPTOMATIC BEES, AND RESULTS IN SEVERE COLONY MORBIDITY AND EVENTUALLY COLONY MORTALITY. DWV IS VECTORED BY THE PARASITIC MITE VARROA DESTRUCTOR, AND DWV HAS BECOME MORE VIRULENT AND PREVALENT SINCE THE ARRIVAL AND SPREAD OF VARROA MITES ACROSS THE US. DWV IS THE PATHOGEN MOST CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER (CCD) AND THE EXTREMELY HIGH RECURRENT ANNUAL COLONY MORTALITY EXPERIENCED BY BEEKEEPERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY. DWV, CCD AND ELEVATED POLLINATOR MORTALITY THREATEN POLLINATION OF CROPS AND OTHER PLANTS DEPENDENT UPON HONEY BEES AND NATIVE HYMENOPTERAN POLLINATORS (WHICH ARE ALSO AFFECTED BY DWV). APICULTURISTS HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING INCREASINGLY SEVERE AND UNSUSTAINABLE COLONY LOSSES, WITH DWV AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS IN THE GROWING NUMBERS OF COLLAPSED COLONIES EACH YEAR. NOTABLY, THE INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE OF DWV, INCLUDING NEW AND MORE PATHOGENIC QUASI-SPECIES OF DWV CONTINUE TO GROW AND THERE IS EVERY REASON TO BELIEVE THAT TREND WILL PERSIST.FORTUNATELY, BEEWEAVER BEES EXHIBIT SIGNIFICANT LEVELS OF DWV RESISTANCE. BEEWEAVER BEES CARRY LOWER LATENT DWV LOADS AND DWV VIRAL TITERS IN BEEWEAVER COLONIES DO NOT INCREASE WHEN VARROA MITES ARE PRESENT. THIS EXISTING GENETIC RESOURCE IS A STARTING POINT TO DEVELOP AND COMMERCIALIZE QUEENS THAT HAVE HIGHER AND MORE CONSISTENT LEVELS OF DWV RESISTANCE. WE PROPOSE A PHASE I USDA SBIR PROJECT TO DEVELOP AND DEPLOY A SIMPLE, NONLETHAL, RAPID AND HIGH THROUGHPUT SYSTEM TO IDENTIFY HONEY BEE DRONES AND VIRGIN QUEENS HARBORING TRAITS CONFERRING ELEVATED DWV RESISTANCE, AND THEN USE THOSE SELECTED DRONES AND QUEENS TO PRODUCE SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS OF HONEY BEES (APIS MELLIFERA) AND HONEY BEE QUEENS THAT EXHIBIT ENHANCED DWV RESISTANCE AND DO NOT SUCCUMB TO DWV INFECTION.THE PROJECT HAS TWO MAJOR TECHNICAL OBJECTIVES: 1) DEMONSTRATE A FAST, NONLETHAL METHOD FOR SCREENING AND SELECTING VIRUS RESISTANT HONEY BEE DRONES (DRONES THAT DO NOT DEVELOP HIGH DEFORMED WING VIRUS (DWV) TITERS AFTER DWV INJECTION); AND, 2) INSEMINATE QUEENS USING SEMEN FROM DRONES WITH CONFIRMED DWV RESISTANCE AND PROPAGATE SUBSEQUENT GENERATIONS OF HONEY BEES THAT EXHIBIT ENHANCED VIRAL RESISTANCE.THE BEEWEAVER POPULATION HAS SIGNIFICANT, THOUGH VARIABLE, DWV RESISTANCE, DEMONSTRATING THE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF PRODUCING HIGHLY DWV RESISTANT BEES IS WITHIN REACH. THESE BEEWEAVER BEES ARE A GENETIC RESOURCE DEVELOPED BY THE PI. THE TARGET FOR PHASE I IS TO ACCELERATE PRODUCTION OF QUEENS WITH ENHANCED AND MORE UNIFORM DWV RESISTANCE. BEEWEAVER HAS THE CAPABILITY, EQUIPMENT, COLONIES AND MATING NUCLEI TO REAR AND PRODUCE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF QUEENS AND HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DRONES TO COMMERCIALIZE THIS STRAIN AND SELL QUEENS TO BEEKEEPERS ACROSS THE US. THESE GENETIC AND QUEEN PRODUCTION ASSETS WILL FACILITATE THIS PHASE I PROJECT TO PRODUCE QUEENS THAT RELIABLY RESIST DWV INFECTION. PROVIDING QUEENS THAT ENDOW COLONIES WITH DWV RESISTANCE, AND THUS INCREASE COLONY SURVIVAL DESPITE THE UBIQUITOUS PREVALENCE OF DWV, WILL BE FURTHER COMMERCIALIZED IN PHASE II AND OFFERED FOR SALE TO THE PUBLIC AT THE CONCLUSION OF PHASE II. THE END PRODUCT WILL BE QUEENS WITH ELEVATED AND CONSISTENT LEVELS OF DWV RESISTANCE. QUEENS CARRYING TRAITS CONFERRING RESISTANCE TO DWV WILL BE OFFERED FOR SALE - BOTH TO QUEEN BREEDERS (TO INCREASE THE AVAILABILITY OF DWV RESISTANT QUEENS, SWARMS, NUCLEI AND COLONIES BEYOND WHAT BEEWEAVER CAN PRODUCE), AND TO BEEKEEPERS THROUGHOUT THE US TO INSTALL IN THEIR HIVES, REDUCING DWV INFECTION AND THE COLONY MORTALITY IT INFLICTS.