| Areawide IPM Project |
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Upcoming Events
Workshop held at Field Day (Louisiana Beekeepers Association and USDA-ARS co-hosted), Baton Rouge, LA, 7 October, 2024
American Honey Producers Association, 4-6 Dec 2024, project announcement and overview
Workshop held at the American Beekeepers Federation, 8 January, 2024
Description
A new research and technology transfer collaborative team has been developed as part of the USDA-ARS Areawide Pest Management (AWPM) program to tackle Varroa destructor, currently the largest threat to honey bee colony health and productivity. The AWPM approach focuses on developing tools and programs following Integrated Pest Management strategies that ensures nation-wide applicability. The team aims to promote the integration of biological, cultural, physical, and chemical tools toward the effective control of parasites and pathogens.
The project, “Improving honey bee health and food security through breeding and IPM control of parasitic mites,” led by Drs. Michael Simone-Finstrom, Arian Avalos and Frank Rinkevich at the USDA-ARS Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Laboratory in Baton Rouge, LA leverages the capability and expertise of scientists from five USDA-ARS laboratories from across the U.S. who are at the forefront of honey bee research. This collaborative team extends to academic and commercial beekeeping partners with the aims to:
1) Increase the prevalence of Varroa resistant honey bees in the U.S. through direct deployment of existing populations and training of honey bee breeders on how to isolate and select for mite resistance.
2) Modernize honey bee breeding via use of genomic tools by testing methods novel to honey bee breeding such as marker-assisted and genomic selection approaches.
3) Establish a holistic Varroa IPM plan mitigating mite damage and preventing development of Varroa resistance to treatments through development of tools to identify amitraz resistant mites, novel acaracides, and treatment plans incorporating mite resistance.
4) Assess economic impacts for stakeholders based on standard and novel mite control strategies to establish a practical, realistic understanding of cost / benefits related to mite control applications.
Each objective tackled by this collaborative team addresses a critical need toward implementing and deploying effective Varroa IPM. This funding is crucial to integrate their efforts into a deliverable program and practical management practices for the beekeeping industry.
Over the next several years, this USDA-ARS led research team will produce and deploy hands-on training directly with the beekeeping industry, advance genomic tools to increase the ability of queen producers to breed for mite resistance within their own stocks, develop field decision tools and programs to assess and treat colonies based on the presence of miticide resistant Varroa within beekeeping operations, and improve the sustainability of the beekeeping industry to thus improve food security through reliable pollination services.
USDA-ARS Team members
Project Leads
Michael Simone-Finstrom (lead PI)
Contact at Michael.SimoneFinstrom@usda.gov
Collaborating Team Members
Baton Rouge, LA
Beltsville, MD
Davis, CA
Tucson, AZ
Kerrville, TX
Additional information
USDA-ARS Areawide Pest Management (AWPM) program
Current Resources:
Mite resistance selection handout
Brief overview presentation of the project
Past Events
