More information can be found on the website of the Italian National Reference Laboratory (NRL) on Honey Bee Health. As of November 19 2024, five new apiaries have been confirmed positive for Aethina tumida infestation in the municipality of Messina (Figure 1). In all 11 apiaries and three sentinel nuclei have been confirmed positive for SHB infestation. Figure 1. The surveillance activity of A. tumida infestation in Sicily (as of November 19 2024). Please click on the figure to...

The EU RL for Bee Health held its 14th annual workshop on 24th October 2024 in Sophia Antipolis (France). The participants had the pleasure to listen to two presentations of NRLs’ activities and the current honey bee health status in Belgium by Severine Matthijs (Head of the Belgium NRL) and in Slovakia by Miriam Kantikova (representative of the Slovakian NRL). Franco Mutinelli, head of the Italian NRL, presented an overview of 10 years living with SHB Calabria region.  This...

Aims: To evaluate the conformity of the results obtained by the European Union (EU) National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) for the identification of Tropilaelaps spp. by morphological examination Modalities: Ring test consisting of sending a unique panel of samples, successively to each participating laboratory.   Requirements for participation:  Due to logistical constraints, this comparative laboratory test (CLT) is only open to EU NRLs, which have not...

The EU RL for Bee Health held its 13th annual workshop on 10th October 2023 in Sophia Antipolis (France) after three years remotely. All participants were particularly happy to meet in person. Informal discussions were intense and the EU RL leaders had to kindly interrupt long coffee breaks to resume the annual workshop.   The participants had the pleasure to listen to two presentations of NRLs’ activities and the current honey bee health status in Estonia by Merle Kuus (...

Objective: to evaluate the conformity of the results obtained by the participating laboratories for the detection of Paenibacillus larvae / Melissococcus plutonius, agents of American/European foulbrood. Methods evaluated: Microscopy Conventional and/or real time PCR Culture Matrix: Crushed bee larvae Provisional agenda: Registration deadline: 20/08/2023 Availability of samples to be tested:  September 2023 Requirements for participation: NRLs and...

Update on April 17th 2023 On March 1st 2023, protection zones around Saint-Pierre and Saint-Joseph were removed. A surveillance zone of 10 km around outbreaks in Saint-Philippe was set up with the same measures than previously in place in protection zones (Figure 1). Identification and traceability of colony movements were set up for the entire territory. Surveillance continues and the objective remains at the moment eradication of SHB. On April 3rd 2023, a new case was found in Saint-...

The EURL for Bee Health held its 12th annual workshop on 4th & 5th October 2022 by video conference. This workshop was a success with up to 56 connections at the same time. Dr. Franco Mutinelli, Head of the Italian NRL, presented a state of play of the occurrence and surveillance of SHB in Southern Italy. The participants had also the pleasure to listen to two presentations of NRLs’ activities and the current honey bee health status in Denmark by Dr. Per Kryger (head of the Danish...

The EURL team was happy to welcome our colleagues from the Danish NRL, Per Kryger, head of the NRL, and his technician, Anna la Cour, to support them in their process of accreditation on regulated diseases. They were welcomed by Stéphanie Franco and Véronique Duquesne, also heads of the French NRL for Bee Health, Karim Sidi-Boumedine, the bacteriology project manager and former laboratory quality manager, and Marie-Pierre Rivière, head of the HoneyBee Pathology Unit and...

In 2021, the EURL for Bee health initiated a new format to exchanges within the NRL network. The first EURL webinar was organized on 30th November. The objective was to discuss the activities on viruses for 2022 and later. After a presentation of the advances in the activities on virus disease diagnosis at the EURL, Eric Dubois (virologist at the EURL) opened the discussion with the NRLs on the next proficiency test and the development of a database on the dynamic of bee viruses across Europe....

The EURL for Bee Health held its 11th annual workshop on 22nd and 23rd September 2021 by video conference. This workshop was a success with up to 59 participants connected at the same time. This year, the discussions focused on the American foulbrood and the advantages of new molecular tools for the study and surveillance of this disease. The EURL presented the development of a core genome multilocus sequence typing scheme (cgMLST) for P. larvae (EuroPLarva project), agent of the American...