Invitation

Documents:

Word .doc version of this invitation

Registration form ( MS Word .doc / PDF )

Abstract form ( MS Word .doc / PDF )

COST Action FA0803

COLOSS Work Shop

Standardized methods for honey bee rearing in hoarding cages

Agricultural Research Council - Research Unit for Apiculture and Sericulture (CRA-API)

Via di Saliceto, 80 – Bologna, Italy.

Tel.: +39 051 353103 Fax: +39 051 356361 Email: api@entecra.it

Workshop has been postponed until the autumn !

Information concerning new dates will be posted on this website.

Reimbursed participation is limited to 20 Coloss members. Preference will be given to participants actively involved in experiments using hoarding cages, however the workshop is open to scientists (also early stage researchers and students) who are interested in the topic, even if they don't have direct experience in use of this testing method.

Reimbursement by COST will be about 200 € and will cover travel expenses only.

There will be a registration fee of about 30 €.

Motivation for workshop: 

Hoarding cages are used for many different kinds of tests, such as evaluation of, toxicity, bee vitality, longevity, development of disease, efficacy of medicaments, synergic effects of several factors, but scientists conducting independent experiments on these subjects often make different choices concerning use of this tool (hoarding cage type, temperature, quality and amount of food provided etc), infection/infestation procedure (storage of the pathologic material, method of inoculation, honey bee age etc.) and data recording (post-infection/post-infestation age, examined organs, behavioural observations, longevity assessment etc.).

Even though the above differences are not sufficient to invalidate some of the trials, obvious problems show up when attempts to compare the inter-experiment results are made.

This points out that efforts to standardise the working procedures are badly needed because rearing and observing honey bees in the laboratory is an important common tool used in many research areas.

Attempts to standardise the laboratory rearing conditions are already ongoing in specific areas, like the study of nosemosis.

This workshop is in line with the present need to extend standardization efforts to the different  research fields. The final aim is to improve the comparability of experimental results and to produce standard protocols specific for different tests that could be included in the BEE BOOK.

Scientific programme:

The following issues will be discussed:

1 – Observations on ADULT BEES

1a – Stress/wellbeing assessment
1b – Longevity tests
1c – Toxicity of medicaments for the bees
1d – Toxicity of environmental contaminants (pesticides etc.)
 
2 – Observations on PATHOGENS
2a – Development of infections
2b – Efficacy of medicaments for the bees
 
3 – Comparisons: REARING CONDITIONS AND MATERIAL

3a - Kind of cage (material, size, hygiene)

3b – Incubation conditions (T, RH, light, precision required for each)

3c - Origin and age of bees

3d - Practical procedures of bee handling (bee collection and anaesthetization)

3e - Kind and mode of feeding

3f – Administration modes of the tested factors (individual / collective inoculation / intoxication)

 3g - Duration of test

4 – STATISTICS

4a - Number of bees per cage

4b - Number of repetitions and replicates 

4c – Experimental setup (problem of autocorrelation in longevity tests)

4d – Observation classes (definition of “dead bee”)

5 - RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAB AND FIELD RESULTS

Deadline for registration and abstracts: March 12, 2010

Local Organizer: Antonio Nanetti

Email: api@entecra.it