Microbial factors in the survival of a Swedish varroa-resistant honeybee population Honeybees are critically important pollinators of both wild and crop plants. The main threat to honeybee colony survival is the Varroa mite and associated diseases. However, there are a number of feral honeybee populations that continue to survive long-term without Varroa control. The best studied of these is on Gotland. Recent studies show a major difference between these Varroa-surviving bees and non-resistant bees in the levels of certain pathogens, that manifests itself increasingly towards the end of the season. This is when the winter bees are produced whose primary role is to ensure survival of sufficient bees to re-start the colony the following spring. This project explores the possibility that these pathogens, and the rest of the honeybee microbiome, play a key role in the longevity of individual bees, allowing resistant colonies to survive where non-resistant colonies perish.
The position is based at the Department of Ecology of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), in Uppsala, Sweden. The position is part of a collaborative project that also involves the Department of Virology of the Veterinary Faculty at SLU and the BioMedical Center at Uppsala University (UU).Application deadline: 2014-02-28. For more information see the link below.
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