B.A.B.E.

BABE: Beekeeping and Apis Biodiversity in Europe

The European Union is now funding a large range of projects throughout Europe, and not just for roads. Some of the money goes to areas of science that the EU is trying to promote. One such area being funded during the EU’s “5^th Framework” is Environment and Sustainable Development (see http://www.cordis.lu/eesd/src/research.htm ). Recently, a group of bee laboratories throughout Europe applied for funding to carry out a project on Beekeeping and Apis Bidiversity in Europe, which is given the acronym BABE. The collaborating laboratories and their leaders are

Robin Moritz, Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany (project coordinator)
Marco Lodesani, Instituto Nazionale di Apicoltura, Bologna, Italy
Francis Ratnieks, University of Sheffield, UK
José Serrano, University of Murcia, Spain
Michel Solignac, University of Paris (Sud, Orsay), France
Koos Boomsma, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The EU has provided a useful degree of funding. In the case of my laboratory, the money will be used to hire a scientist with a Ph.D. for approximately two years and for the equipment and chemicals needed for the research. Much of the work will require modern genetic techniques and these are very expensive, and it is also very expensive to hire people. For example, a researcher with a Ph.D. costs about £30-35,000 per year in terms of salary, pension and insurance. On top of that the EC pays an additional 20% to the university for overheads such as office space, electricity, use of facilities. The Sheffield side of the genetics will be carried out in the laboratory of my colleague Professor Terry Burke. Terry’s lab is officially know an the Sheffield Molecular Genetics Facility and is a national centre for research and training in the use of genetic techniques in the study of natural populations of animals and plants.

The BABE project exactly matched one of the key action priorities of the EU, namely to “Develop and apply strategies to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with conflicting human activities”. Unlike many biodiversity issues, the honey bee is just one species and is in no danger of extinction. However, there is a need to conserve regional diversity. Local races and subspecies of honey bees may be specially adapted to their own area, and the genetic diversity that exists is likely to be of great importance in bee breeding and bee improvement. Honey bees are also vital to human agriculture. They are probably the only species of agriculturally important animal where the managed population and the wild population routinely interbreed with one another. This is because queens mate in mid air with drones from miles around.

BABE has five main objectives.

1. Genetic diversity of European honey bees

2. Genetic analysis of conserved populations

3. Genetic analysis of managed populations

4. Practical conservation

5. Bee improvement

In a nutshell, BABE will be obtaining baseline data on the genetics of honey bees from all over Europe, and also within managed and conserved populations. We will be surveying genetic markers found on both nuclear and mitochondrial chromosomes. These markers will enable us to distinguish bees originating from different areas, and also “gene flow”, that is movemenet of bees both natural and through human activities such as queen importation. The project will also provide assistance to practical conservation and bee improvement initiatives, such as BIBBA’s Hope Valley project. For example, further research on the mating behaviour of queens in the valley and assistance with breeding black bees that are hygienic and manageable.

I look forward to working with BIBBA on this project, and hope that BABE will make an important contribution to the Hope Valley project. We will be able to do things that BIBBA and beekeepers cannot do, but we will not be able to succeed without the full cooperation of BIBBA and for BIBBA to continue what they are currently doing. Cooperation with BIBBA was also very important in obtaining this funding and in ensuring my involvement. When Professor Moritz was contacting people to see if they wanted to be part of the proposed project, I agreed to join because I already had good links with BIBBA and was sure that useful research and conservation work would be done and that the Hope Valley project was a worthwhile endeavour to support.

After over one year of making applications, reapplying, and answering a myriad of additional questions from the EC about the management and objectives of the project, BABE was finally approved in August. The project will officially start soon, probably in December 2000, and I hope to hire someone to work on the project in Spring 2001

Dr Francis Ratnieks