Did you know there is a new honey bee vaccine? Dalan Animal Health developed a groundbreaking vaccine that protects honey bees from American Foulbrood (AFB) but there’s more good news! New research has found that this same vaccine not only protects colonies from AFB, it also may have the potential to reduce Deformed Wing Virus. Read on to find out more about the latest findings.
What is Deformed Wing Virus (DWV)?
DWV is often tied to high varroa mites levels. The virus is transmitted by varroa mites and can affect honey bees in all stages of their development. The severity of the virus depends on at what stage the honey bee is infected. Bees infected during development are often malformed with shriveled wings, bloated abdomens, and/or decreased body size. They don’t live long and can often be seen crawling around on the ground in front of the hive. Bees that are infected as adult may appear normal, but may have decreased memory and learning abilities.
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What did Dalan’s Study Find?
Dalan’s study followed 400 commercial hives across 8 different bee yards in Georgia. At the start of the study, Deformed Wing Virus levels were equal across all the colonies, then vaccinated queens were placed in half of the hives. After just 4 months they found that DWV levels were significantly lower in the vaccinated colonies. In fact, there was an 83% reduction in DWV in these vaccinated colonies across the entire season! A major beekeeper in California also reported a 90% reduction in his hives as well!
Why Does it Matter?
This is really exciting because DWV is strongly associated with overwintering loses. So, this kind of reduction in the virus could make a huge difference to the survival of our bees! Plus, DWV can be passed to wild bee populations, like bumble bees, which are currently in decline. So this vaccine protects against AFB but may have the potential to one day protect against DWV in our honey bees, it also helps protect important native bee species.
How Can You Vaccinate Your Bees?
It’s so easy to vaccinate your colonies. You can purchase the vaccine directly and feed it to your existing queens or you can order already vaccinated queens from one of Dalan’s certified retailers. Head to www.Dalan.com to find out more.
Special thanks to Buddha Bee Apiary and Rushing River Apiaries and Carey Apiary and Farm, LLC for the use of their images.
No please. Let’s not vaccinate bees. Let’s make their environment healthy, diverse, without pesticides. without pollution .. without drugs. Let’s look at the source of the problem and not the symptom. The make-up of the bee is perfect. She has survived across the ages. For example, if the bees swarm, they lose the varroa – but we stop them. There must be an underlaying cause of American Foulbrood- find that and address that. Let’s go back to how nature intended things, not inject the perfect bee with profit driven pharmaceuticals.