- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His seminar is set for 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, April 12 in 122 Briggs Hall. It also will be virtual. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672
"Parasitic infections, pesticide exposures, and lack of nutrition are thought to interact to cause synergistic declines in honey bee health," Mayack says in his abstract. "First, I will demonstrate how disease can lead to altered behavior that is linked to the honey bee‚ a highly social nature that results in its inability to buffer against energetic stress. Then I will discuss how environmental chemical exposure biomarker profiles (fingerprints) can be used to predict presence of the most common honey bee diseases and how the two are likely interact along metabolic pathways, which is likely to be key in explaining the underlying mechanisms responsible for synergistic declines in honey bee health."
"Lastly, I will present how a systems biology approach coupled with long term monitoring of bee health will be a central powerful tool, moving forward, for unraveling the mystery that surrounds identifying the specific mechanistic causes of global bee health declines."
New Scientist featured him in its April 28, 2021 edition in an article headlined: "Honeybees Stress Each Other Out by Warning about Minor Parasites."
"A one-celled fungus called Nosema ceranae can infect the guts of individual bees, causing a disease called nosemosis," wrote science journalist Christa Lesté-Lasserre. "Similar to tapeworm infections in humans, nosemosis apparently makes bees hungrier and reduces their resistance to pesticides and probably viruses, but it isn't particularly fatal. Yet, nosemosis is one of the top reasons honeybee populations are declining."
She wrote that Mayack, then of Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, "suspected this might have something to do with how the fungus affects the bees' social structures."
Mayack, who joined the USDA-ARS in August of 2022, holds a bachelor's degree in biology (2007) from the State University of New York, Geneseo, and a doctorate in zoology (2012) from Colorado State University. He wrote his dissertation on “Behavioral Alteration in the Honeybee Due to Parasite-induced Energetic Stress.” Mayack served as a 2012-2014 Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Zoology Institute, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.
His research interests include systems biology, improving honey bee health, animal physiology, animal behavior, parasite-host interactions, neurobiology, effects of aging, evolution of social behavior, regulation of appetite and energetic homeostasis, and metabolomics/exposomics.
Seminar coordinator is Emily Meineke, urban landscape entomologist and assistant professor. See the list of spring seminars here. For technical issues (Zoom), contact Meineke at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The program, funded by the USDA Specialty Crop Multi-State Program, and developed at UC Davis, involves the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security (WIFSS) at UC Davis, Jonathan Dear at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, and Ramesh Sagili of the Oregon State University Honey Bee Laboratory.
"Honey bees play a critical role in agricultural production and pollinate roughly one-third of all food eaten in the United States, including apples, melons, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, and almonds," writes Sara Garcia in an article on the WIFSS website. "In the United States, honey bees account for $15 billion in added crop value, and in California, honey production is ranked 5th in the nation with a value of $22.9 million. Honey bees are crucial in pollination for domestic agriculture, food security, and the nutritional benefits they provide to society. Safeguarding their health is of the utmost importance."
"The program is composed of an asynchronous online course and a hands-on, in-person training workshop and qualifies for continuing education units for veterinarians," Garcia noted. "Participants can take the online course at any time at their own pace. The online portion is a prerequisite for the in-person training. The in-person will be postponed due to COVID-19 and will be available when permitted and conditions are safe."
"Veterinarians play an important role in maintaining animal health of many species to ensure that people have plentiful, safe, and nutritious food. As a food producing animal, honey bees are included! Honey bees are vulnerable to highly contagious bacterial diseases, such as American foulbrood, and veterinarians are necessary to oversee the proper use of antibiotics in apiaries to treat bacterial disease. The program developed at UC Davis, will train veterinarians, apiculture educators, and beekeepers to better understand the prudent use of antibiotics, the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD), bee biology, and beekeeping."
"Training will be provided through a comprehensive online bee biology course and a hands-on beekeeping program and covers honey bee biology, beekeeping techniques and tools, and information regarding the new laws that govern antibiotic use in apiculture. The oversight veterinarians provide in prescribing antibiotics helps to prevent the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria, enhances food safety and ultimately safeguards the health of humans, animals, and environment. By bringing veterinarians together with apiculturists through education, we can maintain strong, healthy colonies for specialty crop pollination and safe honey production for consumers."
See more information at https://www.wifss.ucdavis.edu/beevets/