1st Edition

Honey Bee Colony Health Challenges and Sustainable Solutions

Edited By Diana Sammataro, Jay A. Yoder Copyright 2012
    320 Pages 59 Color & 59 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Modern commercial beekeeping has changed from primarily honey production to crop pollination. With this change has come extraordinary stress—colonies are moved multiple times a year, increasing their exposure to diseases, parasites, and hive pests. Antibiotics and acaricides are being applied more frequently, resulting in resistance and comb contamination. The future use of bee colonies as mobile pollinator populations requires modern management methods with fresh perspectives on nutrition, breeding practices, and the role of microbes in sustaining colony health.

    Honey Bee Colony Health: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions summarizes the current status of honey bees and possible reasons for their decline. This beautifully illustrated volume provides a foundation for management methods that maintain colony health. Integrating discussions of Colony Collapse Disorder, the chapters range from information on the new microsporidian Nosema ceranae pathogens, the current status of the parasitic bee mites, updates on bee viruses, and the effects of these problems on our important bee pollinators. This indispensable text also presents methods for diagnosing diseases and updated information on the current status of bee breeding.

    Honey bee colonies are in greater demand and are renting for higher fees than ever before. Finding ways to prevent outbreaks of disease and to control parasites is essential for reducing colony losses. The accumulation of knowledge from a range of bee scientists, Honey Bee Colony Health: Challenges and Sustainable Solutions aims to inspire future generations of researchers, beekeepers, and students to continue to study bees and keep them healthy and pollinating.

    Honey Bee Health: The Potential Role of Microbes
    Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, Bruce Eckholm, and Kirk E. Anderson

    Seasonal Microflora, Especially Winter and Spring
    Asli Özkirim

    Evaluation of Varroa Mite Tolerance in Honey Bees
    Ingemar Fries

    Status of Breeding Practices and Genetic Diversity in Domestic U.S. Honey Bees
    Susan W. Cobey, Walter S. Sheppard, and David R. Tarpy

    Global Status of Honey Bee Mites
    Diana Sammataro

    Biological Control of Honey Bee Pests
    W. G. Meikle, D. Sammataro, and G. Mercadier

    Molecular Forensics for Honey Bee Colonies
    Jay D. Evans, Dawn Lopez, I. Barton Smith, Jeffery Pettis, and Yan Ping Chen

    Honey Bee Viruses and Their Effect on Bee and Colony Health
    Joachim R. de Miranda, Laurent Gauthier, Magali Ribière, and Yan Ping Chen

    PCR for the Analysis of Nosema in Honey Bees
    Brenna E. Traver and Richard D. Fell

    Nosema ceranae Detection by Microscopy and Antibody Tests
    Thomas C. Webster and Katherine Aronstein

    Chalkbrood Re-Examined
    K. A. Aronstein and H. E. Cabanillas

    Critical Transition Temperature (CTT) of Chalkbrood Fungi and Its Significance for Disease Incidence
    Jay A. Yoder, Derrick J. Heydinger, Brian Z. Hedges, Diana Sammataro, and Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman

    Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida) Contributions to Colony Losses
    James D. Ellis

    Pesticides and Honey Bee Toxicity in the United States
    Reed M. Johnson, Marion D. Ellis, Christopher A. Mullin, and Maryann Frazier (edited by Yves Le Conte)

    Cellular Response in Honey Bees to Non-Pathogenic Effects of Pesticides
    Aleš Gregorc, Elaine C. M. Silva-Zacarin, and Roberta C. F. Nocelli

    Differences Among Fungicides Targeting the Beneficial Fungi Associated with Honey Bee Colonies
    Jay A. Yoder, Brian Z. Hedges, Derrick J. Heydinger, Diana Sammataro, and Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman

    Fungicides Reduce Symbiotic Fungi in Bee Bread and the Beneficial Fungi in Colonies
    Jay A. Yoder, Derrick J. Heydinger, Brian Z. Hedges, Diana Sammataro, Jennifer Finley, Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, Travis J. Croxall, and Brady S. Christensen

    Interactions between Risk Factors in Honey Bees
    Yves Le Conte, Jean-Luc Brunet, Cynthia McDonnell, Claudia Dussaubat, and Cédric Alaux

    Understanding the Impact of Honey Bee Disorders on Crop Pollination
    Keith S. Delaplane

    Calculating and Reporting Managed Honey Bee Colony Losses
    Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Robert Brodschneider, Yves Brostaux, Romee van der Zee, Lennard Pisa, Robyn Underwood, Eugene J. Lengerich, Angela Spleen, Peter Neumann, Selwyn Wilkins, Giles E. Budge, Stéphane Pietravalle, Fabrice Allier, Julien Vallon, Hannelie Human, Mustafa Muz, Yves Le Conte, Dewey Caron, Kathy Baylis, Eric Haubruge, Stephen Pernal, Andony Melathopoulos, Claude Saegerman, Jeffery S. Pettis, and Bach Kim Nguyen

    Conservation of Plant–Pollinator Mutualisms
    David W. Inouye

    Biography

    Diana Sammataro, co-author of the Beekeeper’s Handbook, began keeping bees in 1972 in Litchfield, Connecticut, setting up a package colony in her maternal grandfather’s old bee hive equipment. From then on, she decided that her B.S. in Landscape Architecture (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), would not be a career, but that honey bees would. After a year of independent studies on floral pollination (Michigan State University Bee Lab, East Lansing), she earned an M.S. in Urban Forestry (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor). In 1978 she joined the Peace Corps and taught beekeeping in the Philippines for 3 years. On returning, she worked at the USDA Bee Lab in Madison, Wisconsin, under Dr. Eric Erickson, studying the effects of plant breeding and flower attraction of bees in sunflower lines. When the lab closed, she eventually went to work at the A.I. Root Company as Bee Supply Sales Manager in Medina, Ohio.

    In 1991, she was accepted at the Rothenbuhler Honey Bee Lab at The Ohio State University, Columbus, to study for a Ph.D. under Drs. Brian Smith and Glen Needham. In 1995, she worked as a post-doctoral assistant at the Ohio State University Agricultural Research Center in Wooster, Ohio, with Dr. James Tew and in 1998 at the Penn State University Bee lab. Early in 2002, she was invited to join the USDA-ARS Carl Hayden Honey Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. Her current position is as a Research Entomologist and her work includes research on bee nutrition problems, how they influence Varroa, and current pollination problems.

    Jay Yoder teaches courses in microbiology/immunology and general biology as professor of Biology at Wittenberg University.His research focuses on disease transmission by insects, ticks and mites of medical-veterinary importance, and biological control emphasizing pheromone-assisted techniques, entomopathogenic fungi, and water balance. This research has resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals with undergraduate students as co-authors. In addition, numerous of these undergraduate students have won research awards at regional and national scientific conferences. Jay holds a B.A. from the University of Evansville (Biology, Chemistry, French), a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University (Entomology; laboratory of Dr. David Denlinger) and conducted Post-doctoral work at Harvard University (laboratory of Dr. Andrew Spielman).

    The list of 68 contributors reads like a veritable Who's Who of international honeybee specialists. Although the authors discuss CCD in various contexts, the volume is much broader in scope and presents up-to-date information on the role of viruses, microbes, fungi, parasitic mites, other hive parasites, and various pesticides in hive health. The authors also consider interactions between various risk factors as the possible cause of current honeybee decline. This book will be of interest to beekeepers and bee researchers, but it holds little to attract the attention of a general reader. Institutions with active apiculture programs will own this volume; other libraries will find it difficult to justify the expense. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers/faculty, and professionals/practitioners.
    —P. K. Lago, University of Mississippi, in CHOICE, May 2012

    "Honey Bee Colony Health is a welcome addition to the treatment of honey bees as social organisms and their role in the wider field of pollination biology. It supplements and complements information found in two other recent ground breaking contributions: The Buzz about Bees by Jiirgen Tautz and Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley. There seems little question that all these volumes represent a rich resource for the future study of honey bees by beekeepers and researchers alike."
    —M. T. Sanford, Apis Enterprises, in Florida Entomologist, (95)1, March 2012

    "….In a nutshell, [Honey Bee Colony Health] edited by two respected scientists, contains a series of chapters written by 68 scientists whose topics are largely within their field of speciality. Whilst many of the scientists who contribute to this work are from the US, others are from Belgium, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, UK, Slovenia, South Africa, Canada, Brazil, Turkey and the Netherlands - showing that to tackle the enormous problem international collaboration is essential. …

    ….Anyone wishing to be extremely knowledgeable about what is happening to bees and about the huge amount of research which is being carried out at an international level, will find this book invaluable. They will learn, too, that there are many areas of promising investigation which cannot be continued because of lack of funds which must be very frustrating for the scientists. …

    ….I am not going to say that this book should be on every beekeeper's book shelf; that is the wrong place for it. It should be much nearer at hand and thoroughly studied. With beekeepers commonly accepting 30% losses, they need to know what is going on and what is being done to help them and their bees."
    —John Phipps, The Beekeepers Quarterly, Number 107, March 2012, pp. 51-52