Funding tool: Citizen Science
Project-ID: FTI24-C-019
Project start: 01. Juni 2025
Project end: 31. Mai 2028
Runtime: 36 months / ongoing
Funding amount: € 357.675,00

Brief summary:
The honeybee Apis mellifera and a range of other flower visiting insects are essential pollinators of 75% of the world’s agricultural plants. Their service allows a sustainable pollination of our food plants and thus a stable sustenance. Thus, it is essential to provide beekeepers with the beekeeping tools necessary to mitigate emerging problems in bee health. Due to its clearcut clinical presentation, chronic bee paralysis (CBP) has been one of the longest known honeybee diseases. It is caused by the Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus (CBPV), of which little is known, since the disease has so far occurred very rarely in comparison to other infectious bee diseases. Recently, an increase in the number and severity of CBP cases in Austria and other countries has been reported. Thus, affected beekeepers ask for reliable beekeeping practices to effectively manage CBP outbreaks. However, they must realize that the amount of field proven CBP countermeasures is as limited as the academic knowledge regarding potential causes for the observed increase in CBP prevalence and virulence. Thus, in the proposed project, beekeepers managing CBP-affected colonies will act as beekeeping Citizen Scientists, who (1) will test the selected countermeasures (2) draw conclusions for practical beekeeping from their experience and (3) engage in disseminating the resulting recommendations to the bee keeping community. They will be supported by a team of both academic experts for bee diseases and molecular biology, media experts as well as experts in beekeeping and beekeeping education. The latter ones will ensure the impact of the project by incorporating the lessons-learned into the beekeeping education of Lower Austria. The aim is to provide an effective toolbox for beekeepers, including adequate learning and dissemination materials, as well as an insight into the potential biological mechanisms behind the recent change in CBP appearance.

Keywords:
Biologie: Entomologie, Mikrobiologie, Bioinformatik Veterinärmedizin: Infektionskrankheit, Virologie, Epidemiologie, imkerliche Maßnahmen