STTR Phase I: Investigation and Optimization of a Novel, Pheromone-based Tool for Measuring Honey bee Colony Pest and Disease Resistance

这一小企业技术转让(STTR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响包括通过及早识别和改进抗病虫害蜂群的培育，将蜂群死亡率降低高达75%。蜜蜂正在以前所未有的速度死亡，美国每年的蜜蜂损失高达45%。群体死亡的一个主要原因是寄生的瓦罗螨。不健康的育儿气味(UBO)检测是一种基于信息素的工具，它将测量Varroa抗性所需的劳动力成本降低了18倍，将决策速度加快了20%。该分析的用户友好设计使养蜂人更容易进行蜜蜂选择和蜂王评估，他们经常受到现有分析所需的高技术技能和/或繁重劳动的限制。UBO检测具有改善蜜蜂健康和提高养蜂业务盈利能力的潜力，从而可能显著改善全球作物授粉和食品安全。拟议的项目将评估使用基于蜜蜂信息素的检测来预测蜂群水平病虫害抗性的技术可行性。这种新的工具有可能改善蜜蜂的健康，革命性地培育蜜蜂，并为重要的蜂房管理决策提供信息，因为它能够快速和准确地识别抗Varroa的蜜蜂群体，从而提高蜜蜂选择的效率和效果。然而，为了实现高效和广泛的普及，该技术必须是实用和经济上可获得的，必须在环境变化的情况下始终如一地执行，并且必须被确立为可遗传的抗Varroa特性的可靠指标。拟议的研究将使用复杂的行为、生化、育种和制造技术来优化原型的有效性、安全性和交付，降低生产成本，评估原型在环境变量中的性能，并通过菌落对原型分析的反应来确定抗Varroa特性的遗传性。预期结果包括改善产品交付系统的安全性和效率，更好地了解环境变化对产品性能的影响，以及确认通过蜂箱内测试的蜜蜂行为反应确定的特征的遗传性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project includes the reduction of honey bee colony mortality by up to 75% through early identification and improved breeding of pest- and disease-resistant colonies. Honey bees are dying at unprecedented rates, with annual losses up to 45% in the United States. A primary cause of colony death is the parasitic mite Varroa. The unhealthy brood odor (UBO) assay is a pheromone-based tool that reduces labor costs required to measure Varroa-resistance by 18x, accelerating decision-making by 20%. The assay’s user-friendly design makes honey bee selection and queen evaluation more accessible to beekeepers, who are often restricted by the high technical skill and/or extensive labor required for existing assays. The UBO assay has potential to improve honey bee health and increase profitability of beekeeping operations, and thus may significantly improve global crop pollination and food security.The proposed project will assess the technical feasibility of using a honey bee pheromone-based assay to predict colony-level disease- and pest-resistance. This novel tool has the potential to improve honey bee health, revolutionize honey bee breeding, and inform important apiary management decisions, as it improves efficiency and efficacy of honey bee selection by enabling rapid and accurate identification of Varroa-resistant honey bee colonies. However, to be highly effective and achieve widespread uptake the technology must be practically and economically accessible, must perform consistently despite environmental variability, and must be established as a reliable indicator of heritable Varroa-resistance traits. The proposed research will employ sophisticated behavioral, biochemical, breeding, and manufacturing techniques to optimize prototype efficacy, safety, and delivery, reduce production costs, assess prototype performance across environmental variables, and provide a proof-of-concept for heritability of Varroa-resistance traits identified by colony response to the prototype assay. Expected results include improvements to the safety and efficiency of the product delivery system, improved understanding of the effects of environmental variability on product performance, and confirmation of the heritability of traits identified by honey bee behavioral response to in-hive tests of the product.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.