Researchers find honeybee workers don’t seem to infect queen with viruses

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Researchers find honeybee workers don’t seem to infect queen with viruses

A professor at the University of Minnesota has made a discovery that could help improve the health of honeybee colonies and give a boost to agriculture.

Declan Schroeder says his research stems back nearly 20 years to when beekeepers started observing colony losses that could not be connected to usual threats like varroa mites, climate change, and the increased use of pesticides.

More recently, he tells Brownfield researchers identified more than 20 viruses commonly associated with honeybees.

“And more and more we started looking at this unexplained phenomenon because more often than not viruses can cause a disease in a complex organism like the honeybee and not show its symptoms.”

That understanding led to the latest breakthrough that worker bees don’t seem to infect the queen bee with viruses.

“That means it’s not the end of the world for the colony if it has this virus. If the queen can become resistant, if the queen, for some reason, is not as susceptible, then you can start developing breeding lines. You can start understanding immunity of the queen bee.”

Schroeder says this is especially important for bee breeders who raise queens for pollination like the almond industry.

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