University of Lethbridge researchers receive funding to study honeybee viruses

A team of researchers at the University of Lethbridge is taking a closer look at honeybees and the parasites and viruses impacting their population.

Researchers from southern Alberta have partnered to study honeybee viruses.

University of Lethbridge associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry Trushar Patel and U of L associate professor in biological sciences and honeybee expert Shelley Hoover will research how honeybee-infecting viruses are transmitted and how they interact with their host.

“Alberta is home to about 40 per cent of total honeybee populations in all of Canada,” said Hoover.

“Honeybees are the primary pollinator for all of our food crops that require bee pollination.”

But since 2006, Canadian bee colonies have experienced increased winter mortality, with more than 50 per cent mortality in some regions in some years.

Major factors influencing mortality are parasites, viral and bacterial infections, weather, forage availability, queen bee quality and the use of pesticides.

“Primary among those is the mite called a varroa mite that feeds directly on the bee, but it also transmits a number of different viruses and those viruses can have long-standing health impacts on the bees even after you get rid of the mite parasite itself,” said Hoover.

While honeybees continue to die off at a high rate, Hoover says there’s currently no therapeutics available to fight the viruses—at least until now.

“This research, the goal is to understand these viruses and how they operate in a honeybee as a host,” she said.

Patel and Hoover will work alongside Wade Abbott, a scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Lara Mahal, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Glycomics at the University of Alberta.

The four researchers have been granted $400,000 by Alberta Innovates and Results Driven Agriculture Research to complete the project.

The disease and viruses spread through honeybees drifting into different colonies, out in the ecosystem and by management of the beekeeper.

With the agricultural industry and food production accounting for more than $7 billion worth of food, Patel says the University of Lethbridge is the right choice for this type of research to be done.

“It is a fitting environment where we can get all of those species together where we have different expertise that complements with each other. We have the infrastructure, but we also have the right motivation where this is a local problem—as well as a national problem—and with local researchers, how can we solve this problem?” said Patel.

The two- to three-year study will help boost understanding of how RNA viruses interact with host proteins to slow the mortality rate.

“Inside the lab, we will get samples that are infected with viruses and without viruses from Shelley Hoover,” said Patel.

“Looking at those viruses, isolating them from honeybee samples, and looking at those molecules and how the structures look.”