The honey bee is probably the most well studied insect in the world, yet despite this, much remains unknown. Recent concern about worldwide colony losses has drawn sharp attention to significant gaps in our knowledge.
Since 2008, the international COLOSS (Prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes) network (currently supported by COST and the Ricola Foundation - Nature & Culture) has been coordinating scientific efforts to understand the causes of colony losses and to reverse these declines. Unprecedented international cooperation among scientists has ensured a very fruitful network.
COLOSS COST Action Chair Peter Neumann says: “After four years of activity, the COLOSS network has organized eight conferences, 28 workshops, 29 Short-term Scientific Missions, three training schools, and has contributed to over 130 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. We intend to use the strength of COLOSS to solve an immediate problem experienced by honey bee researchers: the lack of standardisation of experimental methods that makes comparison of the results of experiments carried out in different countries difficult”.
A paper published today in the Journal of Apicultural Research introduces the COLOSS “BEEBOOK”, a unique venture that aims to standardise methods for studying the honey bee. It will be the definitive, but evolving, research manual, composed of 29 peer-reviewed chapters authored by more than 160 of the world’s leading honey bee experts, and is expected to be completed by late 2012. Chapters will describe methods for studying honey bee biology, methods for understanding honey bee pests and pathogens, and methods for breeding honey bees.
The COLOSS “BEEBOOK: standard methodologies for Apis mellifera research” edited by Vincent Dietemann and Peter Neumann of the Swiss Bee Research Centre, Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux and Jamie Ellis of the University of Florida, USA, will be published both online as an Open Access Special Issue of the Journal of Apicultural Research and as a hard copy book for use at the laboratory bench.
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