May 29, 2014
New Bayer center to study health of honeybees

Bayer CropScience’s North American Bee Care Center officially opened April 15 in Research Triangle Park, N.C., site of the company’s North American headquarters.

The $2.4 million, 6,000-square-foot facility – which complements the Bee Care Center at Bayer’s global headquarters in Monheim, Germany – is now the hub of the company’s North American bee care research and outreach efforts, which include another center in North Carolina and centers in California and Ontario, Canada, said Becky Langer, manager of the North American Bayer Bee Care Program.

“Honeybees are essential to modern agriculture production, and our North American Bee Care Center will help facilitate the research needed to help honeybees meet the increasing global demand for crop pollination,” said Jim Blome, president and CEO of Bayer CropScience. “Healthy honeybees mean a more substantial and nutritious food supply for us all, and we understand the many complex issues affecting honeybees’ ability to thrive, including disease, parasites such as varroa mites, genetics and more.”

One of the tasks of the North American Bee Care Center, part of Bayer’s $12 million investment in bee health this year, is to bring together entomologists, apiarists, graduate researchers and other specialists to develop comprehensive solutions for bee health, according to Bayer.

“The center builds on our existing network of professionals to aid in our collaborative research efforts,” Blome said. “We envision this center as a place for visitors to be exposed to the importance of bees … and leave educated and empowered to help bees however they can.”

Dick Rogers, a manager of the center and a research entomologist, said the new facility gives Bayer bee specialists a “home base.” Before it opened, a lot of work had to be done in temporary locations. There was no central place to conduct laboratory work, to store samples, to interact or brainstorm with other researchers or to educate the public.

“This is just a gathering spot for everybody and anybody who wants to talk about bee health,” Rogers said. “It covers all the bases.”

According to Bayer, the new center houses a full laboratory with a teaching and research apiary, honey extraction and hive maintenance space; an interactive learning center; meeting, training and presentation facilities for beekeepers, farmers and educators; and office space for staff and graduate students. There also are on-site honeybee colonies, pollinator-friendly gardens and a screened hive observation area.

Rogers discussed some of the promising projects Bayer personnel are working on. New molecules are being screened for potential use as varroacides – chemicals used to control varroa mites in hives. There’s also an instrumentation project with the goal of monitoring the environment inside and outside the hive – and giving an early warning if something isn’t normal, so corrective action could be taken. The monitoring could be done by remote, too, so somebody sitting behind a computer in one part of the world could see what’s going on in a hive in another part of the world, he said.

Bee repellent research also has shown promise. The goal is to develop naturally occurring compounds into products that could repel bees – by spraying or otherwise – from an area before a crop protection product is applied. Bee repellent trials on feeder stations in North Carolina and on citrus in California have had some success. The next step is to reexamine the doses being used and try the technique on other crops, like canola and cotton, Rogers said.

Richard Linton, dean of North Carolina State University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, said the new center will help consolidate and coordinate Bayer’s internal bee health records with those of his university. Some of the joint research the two institutions are conducting covers honeybee habitat and nutrition, best management practices for beekeepers and mite monitoring, he said.

The new center will be a boon to North Carolina in other ways, said Steve Troxler, the state’s agriculture commissioner.

“Bees are going to become even more important in the future of North Carolina agriculture, maybe than they are today, because we’re becoming a very important specialty crops state,” Troxler said. “I’ve heard bees described as the sparkplug of agriculture … If that thing doesn’t function properly, neither does the automobile. We’ve got to make sure that these pollinators do function properly and have good health. This is a big step in that direction.”

Matt Milkovich




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