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Iowa Honey Producers Association |
The Buzz Newsletter August 2004 |
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Scientists Are As Busy As Bees Protecting Apiaries Reprinted from The Furrow, Summer 2004 Congratulate the honey bee, the first agricultural animal to have its genome fully sequenced, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, and the Baylor College of Medicine. Scientists plan to use the bee’s DNA roadmap to understand its immune system, a boost in the battle against diseases and mites that threaten honey bee colonies and more than 90 crops that depend on them. The genome information may also provide clues about bees’ social and cognitive abilities. Location, location, location. Honey bees are celebrated for their ability to fly off to a distant field, forage for nectar, and boogie for fellow workers to communicate the location of prime flower beds. Unfortunately, beekeepers don’t always share their bee’s outstanding sense of direction – a problem in a trade in which hives are frequently relocated. To make matters worse, sometimes the hives are moved in a more devious manner. Hive theft is a significant problem shared by beekeepers around the world. Some beekeepers are now using portable GPS units to mark the location of hives. Inserting AVID microchips – tiny radio-frequency identification units developed to track petnapped animals – into hives allows beekeepers to identify stolen boxes’ unique code numbers with a hand-held scanner.
More than 90 agricultural crops depend on honeybees for pollination, which makes bee research vital.
Photo: Grant Hielman
Submitted by Tim Laughlin
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