KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

We are happy to share the keynote speakers of the EurBee 10 Congress. The list will be updated continuously. 

 

Tia-Lynn Ashman

Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at San Diego, and PhD from the University of California at Davis, and was Postdoctoral Scholar at McGill University.

Her work focuses on the plant-pollinator interaction in native habitats and explores how other biotic associates (floral microbes and pollen viruses) impact and/or benefit from the association, and how it contributes to biodiversity maintenance. Her work mines the interrelationship between ecology and evolution and spans scales of single interacting populations to diffuse interactions within whole communities.

Dr. Ashman has published 203 publications and has an H index of 66. She is the recipient of a Humboldt Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Distinguished Naturalist Award from American Society of Naturalists, Helmholtz International Fellow Award and a Provost’s Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring from University of Pittsburgh. She has served on the Editorial boards of several prominent journals including The American Naturalist, Ecology, and New Phytologist, as well as on councils of American Society of Naturalists, and Society for the Study of Evolution.  She is deeply committed to outreach and expanding diversity within science.

 

Consequences of sharing pollinators in the Anthropocene

Native flowering plants most often exist in multispecies communities where they share pollinators. Anthropogenic activities are increasingly being recognized as forces altering the structure of plant-pollinator communities via both species gains and losses, potentially changing the functional aspects of the of these communities.  The quantity and quality of pollen transferred within and between plant species is well recognized to determine reproduction, population abundances, and mediate selection on floral traits and mating systems, but also may also be critical to pathogen transmission. I will draw from a diversity of studies in my lab to illustrate how community-level patterns in pollinator sharing result in variation in pollen transfer among plants. I further will discuss how plant traits, pollinator traits, changes in plant and pollinator communities, and surrounding landscapes can affect pollen transfer. Finally, I explore the ways these features cascade to impact plant reproduction via the quantity and quality of pollen transferred, fitness lost through improper (heterospecific) pollen transfer and potentially via pollen-associated viruses transferred among plants. Appreciating this panoramic view of pollinator-mediated interactions in plant communities will help efforts to conserve natural biodiversity as well as promotes sustainable agricultural practices.

 

 

 

Dalial Freitak

Dalial Freitak is an insect physiologist focusing on social insect immunity and behaviour. Specializing in understanding how insect immunity functions on the molecular level, but also how interactions between the hosts and parasites take place, her work has brought a groundbreaking new understanding to the field of immune priming in insects. The discovery has paved the way to revolutionize the animal health sector worldwide and to the development of the first vaccination for honeybees.

In addition to her academic career, Dalial Freitak is a founder, co-owner and scientific leader in the start-up company Dalan Animal Health., Inc. The company has won several prizes, including the Times magazine Top 200 mention for 2023 and has brought to the North American market the first vaccine against American Foulbrood in honeybees.

Originally from Estonia, Dalial Freitak graduated with a Master's degree in Animal Ecology from University in Tartu. She obtained her PhD working at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena Germany. After that, she has been working in the University of Giessen, Germany and the Universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä in Finland.

Currently, Dalial Freitak’s research focuses on trans-generational immune mechanisms in honeybees and self-medication behaviour in ants. She works at Karl Franzen University of Graz with different honey bee pathogens, such as American and European Foulbrood, as well as chalkbrood. Her main ambition is to understand how insects adapt to the stressors in the environment and how to develop applications to safeguard insect health. 

 

The title of her talk will be “Honeybee Vaccination – a New Frontier in Animal Health Sector”.

Insects lack antibodies, the carriers of immunological memory that vertebrate mothers pass on to their offspring. However, our research has shown that an insect mother exposed to pathogens can prime her offspring's immune system. Until now, it has remained a mystery how insects achieve specific trans-generational immune priming without antibody-based immunity. Here, we reveal how honeybees accomplish this through an egg-yolk protein called vitellogenin, which binds to bacterial fragments and transfers them to the eggs. Our findings demonstrate that this natural form of "vaccination" occurs against various diseases and that honeybee queens, when orally exposed to pathogen fragments, can boost the immunity of their offspring. Honeybees face numerous diseases at every stage of their lives, many of which are highly infectious and harmful. Current treatments are not always achieving desired results and can lead to significant losses of honeybees. Moving forward, it is crucial to prioritize honeybee health as seriously as we do that of other livestock. The development of the first vaccine to prevent the spread of AFB marks a significant step towards this goal. This conditionally licensed vaccine was introduced in the U.S. in December 2022 and is currently being used in thousands of hives. The aim is to slow down and ultimately prevent the spread of this highly contagious diseases, while also encouraging a rethinking of bee disease management strategies.

 

 

 

 

Olli Loukola

Olli Loukola is a behavioural ecologist deeply fascinated by animal intelligence and social learning. Specialising in bumblebee cognition, his recent work challenges the conventional belief that insects have only basic learning abilities. Instead, he has uncovered evidence of complex cognition in bumblebees, showcasing their ability to adapt and innovate in response to new challenges.

Collaborating with a dedicated team, Olli Loukola explores various aspects of bumblebee cognition, from spontaneous learning to complex cooperation. Their findings highlight the impressive cognitive potential of bumblebees, showcasing their capacity to innovate in the face of new challenges.

With a PhD from the University of Oulu, focusing on social information use in passerine birds, his academic journey continues at the University of Oulu. He has also conducted research at Queen Mary University of London.

Currently, Olli Loukola's research centres on the buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), aiming to unravel the intricacies of their cognitive processes. Through interdisciplinary approaches, he aims to deepen our understanding of animal cognition and its ecological and evolutionary implications.

 

Complex Cognition of Bumblebees: Spontaneous Learning to Cooperation

Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) demonstrate remarkable cognitive abilities that challenge our understanding of insect intelligence. This talk will present findings from two recent studies on bumblebee cognition. The first study explored cooperative behaviour in bumblebees through tasks requiring them to cooperate with a partner  – push a block and touch a door simultaneously with their partner– to access a reward. Results indicated that bees' cooperative actions are socially influenced, with bees showing signs of active coordination, such as facing their partners during critical moments. The second study investigated bumblebees’ spontaneous tool use. Bees were trained to associate a blue ring with a reward by moving a ball. In a novel setting, bees successfully moved the ball to a new location and used it to reach the reward, demonstrating cognitive flexibility and insight learning. These studies highlight the sophisticated nature of bumblebee cognition, showcasing their ability to engage in socially influenced cooperation and solve novel problems spontaneously. This talk will provide insights into the complex cognitive processes underlying bumblebee behaviour, offering a fresh perspective on insect intelligence.

 

 

 

Stefan Mandl

Stefan Mandl is the founder of the company “Bienenhof Mandl”, which is located in Traiskirchen near Vienna. The 40 employees are caring for 15.000 bee colonies all over Vienna and Lower Austria.

It started 27 years ago with one colony of bees and little knowledge, since then we have been able to at least increase the number of colonies. We have succeeded in setting up an organically run beekeeping operation that is able to ensure widespread pollination. There is close cooperation with farmers whose crops require insect pollination, e.g. B. rapeseed, sunflower, oil pumpkin or seed propagation.

During the season, our bees pollinate around four billion flowers a day which has a significant positive impact on our ecosystem. We produce honey, bee pollen, propolis, beeswax and most importantly queens and bee colonies for sale. Recently, we added breeding bumble bee colonies to our list, to give them to interested garden owners. With this comprehensive range of products, it is possible to offer around 40 families a secure livelihood, to help Austrian beekeepers with bee colonies after lossy winters and to ensure nationwide pollination. We select our honey bees for Varroa tolerance to make them more resistant to this parasite and to offer a solution to the mass colony losses caused by the mite.

 

Bee Health: Breeding for Varroa Resistance

Bienenhof Mandl (bienen.at) is engaged in breeding for varroa resistance across its 15,000 bee colonies, focusing on the six historic Austrian Carnica lines: Wintersbach, Troiseck, Peschetz, Bukovsek, C1, and Putz.

Performance testing is conducted annually on approximately 10% to 15% of the hives by our team of 40 employees. The queens in these test colonies are in their first production year and are daughters of selected ancestors. They are mated either at our isolated mountain mating stations or through artificial insemination.

Our systematic testing includes the following assessments: honey yield measurement, varroa mite counts in spring, summer, and autumn (using icing sugar three times), pin test, monitoring for swarming, evaluating gentleness, observing hive occupancy, and finally, SMR (suppressed mite reproduction) counting during winter.

The estimation of breeding values is managed by the Bee Institute Hohen Neuendorf, Berlin, and the results are published on beebreed.eu. On this platform, we are listed as the “Carnica Austrian Professional Beekeepers” (“Carnica Österreichische Berufsimker”) under AT-2 Bienenhof Mandl, collaborating with around 50 other professional breeders.

In total, we test approximately 2,000 colonies each year, achieving promising results in varroa resistance. Last year, 37.7% of the test colonies required no varroa treatment.

Importantly, this resistance has not led to a significant reduction in other desirable qualities of the honeybees.

While the selection process is still ongoing, the promising results so far indicate that breeding for genetic resistance to Varroa is a crucial step towards developing colonies that can cope with the mite without the need for human intervention.

 

 

Pilar De la Rúa

Pilar De la Rúa is a Professor of Zoology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Murcia (Spain). Her main interest is to understand how different factors influence the conservation of pollinators biodiversity, with a special interest in honey bees and bumblebees. She is particularly interested in how the development of certain beekeeping activities (introduction of subspecies, transhumance, etc.) affects the genetic diversity and health of the honey bee. In recent years, she has also conducted research in the field of parasitology and landscape ecotoxicology to understand how different bee species are exposed to and affected by the spread of pathogens and the use of pesticides in the landscape.

She was the first woman president of the European Association of Apidology (2012-2014) and the main organiser of the EURBEE6 congress held in Murcia in September 2014. Since 2021 she has been Director of the Office for the Transfer of Research Results at the University of Murcia.

Profiles:
https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=zi3Cb8gAAAAJ&hl=es
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0058-1402
https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=6602231607
https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/A-4578-2009

 

Conservation Genetics of Bee Populations with a Focus on Honey Bees, Stingless Bees snd Bumblebees

Bee species, such as honey bees and stingless bees, have been used by humans for centuries as food providers. Additionally, in recent decades, due to their primary role as pollinators, some bee species are being managed for crop pollination. Due to these crucial functions, the decline in bee populations has sparked significant concern regarding its impact on ecosystem functioning, which could affect different trophic levels and threaten human food security. Conservationists and policy makers are therefore seeking effective strategies to conserve and restore bee populations in all habitats. To aid and support these efforts, researchers use molecular methods, based on the analysis of genetic and genomic diversity, which have become essential tools for developing effective conservation strategies.
In this presentation, I will describe how we have been using molecular tools to characterize bee populations in order to enhance conservation efforts. First, I will present our studies on honey bee populations in island ecosystems and examine the genetic consequences of introducing non-native subspecies. In addition, I will discuss phylogeographic studies on stingless bees to understand how geography and management have influenced the population structure of these pollinators in Mesoamerican ecosystems. Finally, I will address how commercial bumblebee management is altering the genetic diversity and structure of these vital crop pollinators in an important hotspot of bumblebee diversity, the Iberian Peninsula, which is also one of the areas with most intensive use of managed bumblebees for pollination.
The primary objective of these conservation genetics studies is to use the acquired information to improve managed bee breeding programs and to enhance conservation efforts of locally adapted managed and wild bee populations in unique habitats.

 

 

Simone Tosi

Simone Tosi is a biologist interested in the health and behaviour of social and solitary bees. Investigating the multifaceted impacts of anthropic and environmental drivers, his team integrates traditional and novel laboratory, field, and in silico approaches using bees as model organisms.

He explores how multiple drivers, mainly pesticides and malnutrition, shape bee behaviours such as flight, navigation, locomotion, thermoregulation, reproduction, and phototaxis. Through biomonitoring surveys using bees, bioindicators of environmental health, Simone’s team and collaborators further investigate environmental contamination and its impact on pollinators.

Simone’s work further aims at refining Environmental Risk Assessments to better assist our society protect bees and the environment. Towards this goal, he has served as scientist expert for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and other EU institutions.

His academic journey has led him to study bees in South Africa (University of Pretoria), USA (University of California San Diego), and France (ANSES Animal Health Laboratory). As Associate Professor at the University of Turin (Italy), he now coordinates the Bee Health and Behaviour Laboratory (www.beelab.unito.it) and teaches “Beekeeping”, “Biodiversity and management of pollinators”, and “Biomonitoring and biodiversity management”.

 

Bee health: the intricate impacts of pesticides

Modern society increasingly needs to protect humans, animals, and the environment from the risks posed by pesticides. The official Risk Assessment processes used to identify harmful pesticides is however marginally aligned with recent scientific findings and relies on the basic, outdated evaluation of the lethal effects of individual pesticides on honey bees. This raise concerns over the limited understanding of the actual harm pesticides pose to bees, especially given their alarming health decline.

In this talk, I will draw on various studies to discuss the intricate relationship between bees and pesticides. I will first highlight the importance of biomonitoring studies using bees to reveal how multiple pesticides contaminate bees and the environment over time and space. Next, I will delineate the broad range of side-effects that pesticides cause to both managed and wild bees exposed to low, field-realistic levels. I will detail the variety of cognitive, behavioural, and physiological effects posed by individual or combined exposure to multiple stressors, such as malnutrition. I will finally discuss the risk implications of current pesticide uses, further exploring the critical yet understudied process of pesticide "Emergency Authorisations". This commonly used process permits using highly toxic pesticides regardless of risk assessment outcomes, raising concerns on the broad human, animal, and environmental implications and about the enduring state of emergency that acts in derogation of the EU Regulation.

This overview aims to enhance the understanding of bee health and facilitate the uptake of research into policies and practices, towards a greater sustainability of our society and the entire environment.