Report of the President of the Standing Commission for Bee Health
August 2005 to May 2006
The main international activities of the president of the commission:
August 2005:OIE Symposium on Diagnosing Bee Diseases in Dublin (Ireland)
The first OIE Symposium on Diagnosing Bee Diseases was held in Dublin from 19th to 20th of August 2005. Dr. Ritter as head of the OIE Reference Laboratory for Bee Diseases at the CVUA Freiburg, Animal Health section, and as Head of the Standing Commission for Bee Health of Apimondia had invited to this meeting. In total, 79 experts from 34 countries participated at this two days’ event.
The main object of the symposium was the harmonisation and standardisation of diagnostic methods. In addition, the exchange of information must be improved and, above all, has to be accelerated. Another object was to commonly discuss and revise the different chapters on bee diseases of the OIE Manual for Diagnosis. Therefore, most of the respective authors of the chapters acted as chairpersons. They had taken over the organisation on their section and had invited competent speakers. Discussions on the chapter American Foulbrood were most extensive. There were quite different opinions on the methods to be selected. Discussions and demands for changes were so manifold that, due to the limited time frame until the presentation of the revised version, it was decided to submit, at first, a version updated as far as possible and, at a longer run, to revise the whole chapter basically. As time was too short even to finish a first update, a group of experts was formed who finally decided per e-mail on the version to be submitted. All other chapters have been updated during this two days. The possibility of adopting certain bee viruses into the manual was only briefly mentioned. This had already been discussed in detail at the BRAVE symposium in Nice/France. At that time it had been concluded that the knowledge on viruses is not yet sufficient enough to allow an adoption into the OIE code. In case of the Small Hive Beetle, however, the situation is reverse. This disease, not included into the OIE Code and manual until 2004, was quite thoroughly discussed in the section.
After the extensive exchange of knowledge and the very fruitful discussions during these two days, the group decided to meet in future regularly. In general, it can be concluded that the necessity of revising and harmonising the diagnostic methods was commonly confirmed. For this purpose, most important and fundamental discussions were held at this symposium. In future, successful work will only be possible in continuous and close cooperation.
August 2005: International Apimondia congress in Dublin (Ireland)
Preparation of one Plenary Session and five Symposia on bee pathology at the International Congress of Apimondia in Dublin/Ireland (organizer, chairman and speaker).
September to December 2005:OIE Manual for dignosis of Animal Diseases
Several chapters about bee diseases in the OIE manual for diagnosis of animal diseases have been revised with other authors. A new chapter about Small Hive Beetle have been written together with other authors.
Since 2005: Research Program on Small Hive Beetle
A new research program was started together with the German universities of Halle, Würzburg and Hohenheim. In cooperation with institutes in Beltsville USA and Grahamstown SA possibilities of diagnosis and control of the Small Hive Beetle have been investigated. In 2005 the activities consisted in preparing the examinations of the following year in SA and the USA. In 2005 possibilities of biological control with microorganisms and natural enemies has been determined in infested colonies in SA.
Whole Period: EU Commission
The president of the commission played an important role on European level in the elaboration of regulations concerning the obligatory notification of the Small Hive Beetle Athina tumida and the mite Tropilaelapsspp. and the related import provisions. For the European commission (Health and consumer protection) he was involved to work out a proposal of the OIE code for Small Hive Beetle.
General:
Several groups and individuals from different countries visited the lab to get information or to be trained in diagnosis and control of bee diseases.
Samples from different countries have been analysed for bee diseases (Viruses, Bacteria and Fungus).
Beekeeping organisation or governmental authorities from different countries asked for assistance in control of bee diseases and national regulations.
Freiburg, May 2006Dr. Wolfgang Ritter