Satuday, March 14. 2-5 pm

The speaker is Dr. Jeffrey Harris, APHIS Staff Entomologist USDA Bee Lab in Baton rouge, LA
Rocky Hill Grange, East Greenwich, RI (Just 1/2 mile off exit 8 on Rte 95).

Agenda & Topics:

• Breeding for Varroa Sensitive Hygiene in Honey Bees
• APHIS Update on Hive Beetle Project
• The Baton Rough Component of the Area wide Experiments

Breeding for Varroa Sensitive Hygiene in Honey Bees - This talk will be both a summary of 10 years of research that led to development of SMR (or VSH) honey bees, and an update of the current thrusts in this research program.  A brief video will be presented that shows VSH bees in action, and there will be new information about other varroa resistance traits being selected in honey bees at the Baton Rouge lab.
The Baton Rouge Component of the Area wide Experiments - The USDA provided funds for a series of experiments to be conducted over a 4-5 year period beginning at the end of 2007.  The purpose of these experiments is to provide new information on colony nutritional needs, the stress of migration and other colony management regimes, and the utility of varroa-resistant stock in commercial beekeeping operations.  The Baton Rouge lab is working with the other federal labs in conducting this series of experiments.   Dr. Harris will report on the specifics of their experiments that involve field testing of ARS Russian honey bees and VSH (or SMR) honey bees in a commercial migratory operation in 2008 and 2009.
Jeff Harris has conducted research on honey bee neurophysiology, techniques for selecting and breeding for varroa-resistant honey bees, and elucidating biological aspects of honey bee resistance to varroa mites over the last 20 years (beginning with his graduate studies at Louisiana State University).  The studies in neurophysiology required novel techniques of handling and sampling honey bees in order to accurately measure chemicals in their brains.  Jeff developed micro-dissection procedures for sampling ovaries and brains of bees and for counting stored sperm in varroa mites.  He was the first to consider and demonstrate the possibility of breeding from selected worker bees, which normally are non-reproductive members of the colony.  He also developed a procedure for tagging individual varroa mites which allows the possibility of in-depth studies of individuals through time.  Jeff worked with Dr. John Harbo (retired USDA, ARS) to breed varroa-resistant honey bees, which ultimately led to the breakthrough discovery of a heritable trait in bees that suppressed mite reproduction (SMR trait).  Jeff contributed significantly to the current understanding that the SMR trait is caused by hygienic removal of mite-infested brood by the resistant bees, which is varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH).  The VSH/SMR trait is commercially sold to the beekeeping industry by Tom Glenn and is targeted in selection programs around the world.  Jeff also had significant roles in the novel search for varroa-resistant germplasm in populations of bees from far-eastern Russia. ARS Russian honey bees are now a successful contribution to the U.S. beekeeping industry.