6 Questions Answered About a New Tool for Protecting Pollinators Honeybees, which pollinate one-third of the crops Americans eat, face many threats, including infectious diseases. On Jan. 4, 2023, a Georgia biotechnology company called Dalan Animal Health announced that it had received a conditional license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a vaccine designed to protect honeybees against American foulbrood, a highly destructive infection. To receive a conditional license, which usually lasts for one year and is subject to further evaluation by the USDA, veterinary biological products must be shown to be pure, safe and reasonably likely to be…
Author: Jennie L. Durant
Jennie L. Durant, UC Davis, The Conversation
Dr. Jennie Durant has been studying the relationship between the almond industry and commercial beekeeping industry since 2012. Her dissertation focused on how commercial beekeepers have changed their management practices over the past 20 years to pollinate for the almond industry, as well as how land use and pesticide policies play a role in shaping honey bee health. As a USDA-NIFA postdoc at UC Davis and University of Oregon, Dr. Durant investigated the barriers and incentives to adopting bee-friendly practices through a survey of the industry and follow-up interviews with almond growers.