D3509: Evaluating and mitigating European foulbrood disease in honey bee colonies pollinating specialty crops

European foulbrood (EFB) is a disease infecting honey bee larvae and is caused by the bacteriaMelissococcus plutonius. Currently in the west coast, commercial beekeepers have beenexperiencing outbreaks of EFB among their pollinating stock in early season specialty crops such asblueberries. These EFB outbreaks have been severe enough that commercial growers are at risk oflosing their pollinator assets for the scale of pollination required at the commercial level ofspecialty crop production. To complicate matters, EFB continues to be a relatively understudieddisease with little management techniques known outside of chemical treatment. Furthermore,EFB outbreaks in west coast honey bee colonies appear to be from highly virulent atypical strains ofEFB. Due to the lack of understanding of this disease and economic incentives of multiple concerned stakeholders in specialty crop production, we (Oregon State University Honey Bee Lab)are conducting a large scale longitudinal study in collaboration with three other universities toidentify factors associated with EFB. The objectives of this study are: 1) determine factorsassociated with EFB, 2) evaluate methods to mitigate EFB, 3) investigate the genetic variation of thepathogen population and identify potential pathways for disease spread, 4) develop economicmodels on the impact, and 5) develop management practices and communicate findings. Ourposter presents the background and methodology of the project, current progress and discussesthe next steps after the first year of data collection