Wisconsin Ag Connection - UW-Stout Holding Discussion on Honey Bee Threats on April 10

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UW-Stout Holding Discussion on Honey Bee Threats on April 10
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 04/06/2017

A potential new threat to the health of honey bees in the region will be the topic of a presentation at University of Wisconsin-Stout next week. Jim Burritt, a UW-Stout biology professor, will discuss his research results on April 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the school's Jarvis Hall Science Wing.

Burritt has led an ongoing honey bee research project at UW-Stout with students, and in December they published an article about a new bacterium they discovered. They named it Serratia marcescens strain sicaria. The bacterium may be a factor in the high wintertime failure rate of honey bee colonies.

"We believe this is important because most beekeepers in our area lose over half of their hives each winter," said Burritt, who is also a longtime beekeeper. "In Dunn County, the percentage of winter hive failure rates has been as high as 80 percent recently."

Burritt's research addresses infectious diseases in honey bees and the defense mechanisms bees use to resist disease. He will discuss evaluating honey bee health and new approaches he is taking to understand some of the challenges bees face.

The honey bee project at UW-Stout is in its sixth year and has involved hundreds of UW-Stout students doing research in microbiology classes, courses within the applied science major and in locations beyond the classroom.

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