Assessing the health status of managed honeybee colonies (HEALTHY-B): a toolbox to facilitate harmonised data collection

Abstract

Tools are provided to assess the health status of managed honeybee colonies by facilitating further harmonisation of data collection and reporting, design of field surveys across the European Union (EU) and analysis of data on bee health. The toolbox is based on characteristics of a healthy managed honeybee colony: an adequate size, demographic structure and behaviour; an adequate production of bee products (both in relation to the annual life cycle of the colony and the geographical location); and provision of pollination services. The attributes 'queen presence and performance', 'demography of the colony', 'in-hive products' and 'disease, infection and infestation' could be directly measured in field conditions across the EU, whereas 'behaviour and physiology' is mainly assessed through experimental studies. Analysing the resource providing unit, in particular land cover/use, of a honeybee colony is very important when assessing its health status, but tools are currently lacking that could be used at apiary level in field surveys across the EU. Data on 'beekeeping management practices' and 'environmental drivers' can be collected via questionnaires and available databases, respectively. The capacity to provide pollination services is regarded as an indication of a healthy colony, but it is assessed only in relation to the provision of honey because technical limitations hamper the assessment of pollination as regulating service (e.g. to pollinate wild plants) in field surveys across the EU. Integrating multiple attributes of honeybee health, for instance, via a Health Status Index, is required to support a holistic assessment. Examples are provided on how the toolbox could be used by different stakeholders. Continued interaction between the Member State organisations, the EU Reference Laboratory and EFSA is required to further validate methods and facilitate the efficient use of precise and accurate bee health data that are collected by many initiatives throughout the EU.

Lethal and sublethal synergistic effects of a new systemic pesticide, flupyradifurone (Sivanto ® ), on honeybees

“…Pesticide toxicity is amplified by multiple interacting stressors [5,20] and thus a holistic approach that tests more of the different conditions that bees naturally experience is beneficial [39,75]. Although sensitivity to pesticides is influenced by season, bee type and concomitant pesticide exposure [44,76], current RA schemes implement only limited tests, requiring only the evaluation of single pesticide effects on in-hive summer bees [77].…”

Honey Bee Health in Maine Wild Blueberry Production

“…A measure of population growth was calculated by determining the percent rate of change from the first sample to the second sample of both sealed brood and workers. Previous studies have found that colony strength and its rate of change is a reliable measure of colony health [27]. The formula we used to estimate the percentage rate of colony population change between the first and second samplings of the colonies is described below.…”

Beekeeping and honey bee colony health: A review and conceptualization of beekeeping management practices implemented in Europe

“…According to previous studies and current definitions used in regulatory documents (Chauzat et al, 2013;EFSA, 2016;EFSA AHAW Panel, 2016;Jacques et al, 2016), the beekeeper category assessment is based on the level of income generated by beekeeping (i.e. whether the activity generates a "significant source of income").…”

“…Beekeeping Management Practices (BMPs) represent the actions implemented by a beekeeper (according to season, legislation, geographic area, cultural background etc.) to maintain healthy honey bee colonies and to achieve his/her agricultural and food production objectives (Ritter and Akratanakul, 2006;EFSA AHAW Panel, 2016). Several national and European monitoring projects, such as APENET (Porrini et al, 2016), the German Bee Monitoring Project (Genersch et al, 2010), EPILOBEE (Laurent et al, 2015;Chauzat et al, 2016) and COLOSS (Gray et al, 2019) highlighted the direct and/or indirect role of the beekeeper in preserving the health and ensuring the productivity of honey bee colonies.…”