(Press-News.org) Scientists at the University of Warwick have modelled an outbreak of the bee infection American foulbrood in Jersey, using a technique which could be applied to other honeybee diseases such as European foulbrood and the Varroa parasite.
As well as modelling how bee infections spread, the method also allows scientists to simulate various disease control interventions in order to measure their efficacy.
The researchers used two sets of data gathered two months apart during an outbreak of American foulbrood in Jersey in the summer of 2010. This provided two 'snapshots' of the disease from which they attempted to reconstruct the entire epidemic.
Reconstructions like this are common for livestock infections, but this is the first time the method has been applied to bee disease.
The research is published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface
American foulbrood is caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, which affects the larval stage of honeybees. It can cause the death of an entire hive within a matter of months.
The Jersey data covered 450 honeybee hives, their location and their owners, from which the researchers built a computer simulation which modelled the speed at which the infection grew as well as how it spread geographically.
Dr Samik Datta of the WIDER group, based at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, said: "Honeybees are one of the most important bee species in the world in terms of their contribution to food production through pollination.
"But in the past 20 years there has been a marked increase in the level of disease among bee populations.
"American foulbrood is an unusually virulent disease which can wipe out a hive within a few months.
"By understanding how it is spreads from hive to hive, we then have a good basis to formulate interventions.
"This is the first rigorous statistical analysis carried out on a honeybee disease epidemic that we are aware of."
The model suggests that just under half of the 2010 Jersey infection spread was attributed to transmission by owners between their own hives.
The researchers suggest that distance between colonies was another important factor in the spread of the disease, with the disease mostly spreading between hives less than 2km apart.
The model also simulated the impact of different control strategies on controlling the epidemic and found that the measures taken by authorities in Jersey at the time – to inspect and destroy infected colonies – were the most effective.
However their model suggested an earlier intervention would have made disease extinction more likely.
The researchers hope now to expand their model to investigate the spread of European Foulbrood, a more common bee disease in the UK. They also believe the same technique can be applied to the Varroa parasite.
Dr Datta said: "Using just two snapshots of data we have been able to reconstruct this epidemic, and we are confident that our technique can be applied to a wide range of other outbreak scenarios."
###
Dr Samik Datta can be contacted on 02476 575874, or via e-mail at s.datta@warwick.ac.uk.
University of Warwick press officer Anna Blackaby is available on +44 (0)2476 575910 or a.blackaby@warwick.ac.uk
The paper Modelling the spread of American foulbrood in honeybees is published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
doi: 10.1098/rsif.2013.0650 END
Model of dangerous bee disease in Jersey provides tool in fight against honeybee infections
2013-09-16
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Cold sore linked to mutation in gene, study suggests
2013-09-16
Why some people are troubled by cold sores while others are not has finally been explained by scientists.
Cold sores affect around one in five people but, until now, no one has been sure why some are more prone to the virus that causes them.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found that people affected by cold sores have a mutation in a gene, which means their immune system is not able to prevent them from developing.
Cold sores are caused by a strain of the herpes simplex virus – herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). Between 80 and 90 per cent of people ...
GOES Satellite catches 3 tropical cyclones in 1 shot, sees Gabrielle absorbed
2013-09-16
There were three tropical cyclones between the north Eastern Pacific and the North Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, Sept. 14, and NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured them in one image created by NASA. Because Mexico was being hit with Tropical Storm Ingrid and Manuel, both coasts were under Tropical Storm Warnings. The National Hurricane Center cautioned that some areas in eastern and western Mexico may receive up to two feet of rainfall from each storm!
NASA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center uses the data gathered by NOAA's GOES series of satellites and ...
Sensors allow for efficient irrigation, give growers more control over plant growth
2013-09-16
ATHENS, GA--As water use and runoff regulations become more stringent and concerns about dwindling water supplies become more of an issue, finding ways to increase the efficiency of water use for horticultural operations is crucial. A new study contains answers that can help horticultural growers address regulatory and cost concerns. Amanda Bayer, lead author of the research study, explained that most often horticultural best management practices (BMPs) are used to conserve water, but that BMPs do not account for water requirements of plants. "Soil moisture sensors can ...
Tufts researchers identify how Yersinia spreads within infected organs
2013-09-16
BOSTON (September 16, 2013) — Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts have identified how one type of bacteria, Yersinia, immobilizes the immune system in order to grow in the organs of mice. To do so, the researchers extended the use of a technique and suggest that it could be used to study other bacteria that use the same or similar means of infection. The study is published in the September 11 issue of Cell Host & Microbe.
Led by microbiologist Joan Mecsas, the research team studied a specific ...
Flame cultivation promising as weed control method for cranberry
2013-09-16
WAREHAM, MA--Cranberries are important agricultural commodities in states such as Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Washington, and Oregon. But cranberry-growing operations are challenged by weeds, which compete for precious resources and often decrease fruit yields and revenues. Producers currently rely on weed management strategies such as flooding and sanding cranberry beds, hand-weeding, or applications of pre- and postemergence herbicides. Recent interest in reducing chemical inputs into cranberry growing systems has led researchers to evaluate alternative methods ...
Low level blast explosions harm brain, says new study in Journal of Neurotrauma
2013-09-16
New Rochelle, NY, September 16, 2013—Repeated exposure to low level blasts (LLB) can cause symptoms similar to sports concussion. Soldiers or law enforcement officers called "breachers" receive training in using low level blasts for forced entry. They may be at risk for diminished neurocognitive performance and symptoms caused by the harmful effects of blast-related pressure changes on the brain, as described in a study published in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of ...
Doing research in the pub
2013-09-16
This news release is available in German. Dim lighting, a jumble of conversations, and loud music: bar staff have to master numerous challenges when serving their customers. In a crowded place, they have to identify who would like to place an order and who does not. A Bielefeld research team analysed how the body language of the potential customer helps the bartenders to achieve this. The team found that real-life observations were at odds with the widespread belief that customers wave for signalling that they would like to order a drink. Analysing the real-life data ...
Study indicates space weather may be to blame for some satellite failures
2013-09-16
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Is your cable television on the fritz? One explanation, scientists suspect, may be the weather — the weather in space, that is.
MIT researchers are investigating the effects of space weather — such as solar flares, geomagnetic storms and other forms of electromagnetic radiation — on geostationary satellites, which provide much of the world's access to cable television, Internet services and global communications.
Geostationary satellites orbit at the same rate as the Earth's rotation, essentially remaining above the same location throughout their ...
2 NASA satellites track Typhoon Man-yi across Japan
2013-09-16
NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites captured images as Typhoon Man-yi made landfall in southern Japan and moved across the big island.
Typhoon Man-yi was approaching Japan when NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured a visible image on Sept. 15 at 0410 UTC/12:10 a.m. EDT. Man-yi weakened to a tropical storm as it quickly crossed Japan dropping heavy rainfall and causing deadly mudslides when NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead on Sept. 16. Man-yi is now headed northeast into the Sea of Okhotsk.
When Aqua passed overhead, a visible image was taken by the ...
Birth of Earth's continents
2013-09-16
VIDEO:
This computer simulation spanning 2.5 billion years of Earth history is showing density difference of the mantle, compared to an oceanic reference, starting from a cooler initial state. Density is...
Click here for more information.
New research led by a University of Calgary geophysicist provides strong evidence against continent formation above a hot mantle plume, similar to an environment that presently exists beneath the Hawaiian Islands.
The analysis, published ...