'Variety is the spice of life: genetic diversity and bee defense.' 

We’ll cover how bees behave, protect themselves, and forage; the unusual things they forage on, and how their survival depends on some bees being better at certain things than others.

Dr. Lewis Bartlett is a post-doctoral fellow at the UGA Honey Bee Program and Odum School of Ecology working at the intersection of infectious disease biology and beekeeping. His research focuses on how infectious diseases, especially viruses, cause so much harm to honeybees. He is currently focused on what extrinsic factors are causing viruses to be such a problem – including long-term impacts of Varroa, pesticide exposure, migratory beekeeping, and genetic diversity of our bee stock. Lewis began keeping bees ten years ago as part of scientific research and as a hobbyist in the UK before moving to America in 2016. He has worked with scientists across the UK, Europe, and USA, including University of Cambridge, University of Georgia, University of California Berkeley, Emory University, University of Ulm, and University of Exeter. His research goals are to inform solutions to managing honeybee diseases that are effective and economically viable, always with an ear toward experiences and insights from beekeepers. Lewis has worked on a range of bee parasites including most known viruses, Nosema, chalkbrood and stonebrood fungus, Varroa, and Crithidia. His published work includes studies on how insects adapt to defend themselves against diseases, the risk of pesticide exposure from spraying to control Zika-vectoring mosquitoes, and what we can expect to happen to disease transmission if we keep bees in bigger, denser apiaries.  

Please take time to join this interesting and informative presentation.