Project
Grip op bijenvirussen
Honey bees are of great importance for the pollination of cultivated crops and natural vegetation. Our understanding of the impact of known and potentially new viruses on the vitality of bee colonies in the Netherlands is limited.
This project focuses on developing insight into the viruses that occur in Dutch bee colonies.
The project goals are:
- Providing an up-to-date overview of bee viruses and plant viruses spread by bees found in Dutch bee colonies based on next generation sequencing analysis;
- Demonstration of the vulnerability of bee colonies to viruses to beekeepers, discussing action perspectives to limit impact;
- Developing an existing dataset of prevalence of a series of bee viruses in bee colonies and its relationship with various environmental factors and bee colony parameters and translating this into practice;
- Inform the beekeeping sector in 2024 and 2025 about aspects of virus infections in bee colonies: effects of viruses on honey bees, routes of virus transmission, action perspectives for limiting virus transmission.
The knowledge developed provides building blocks that are relevant for new/other projects in the field of beekeeping and pollination services.