Every year, honeybees die massively during winter periods. The etiology is complex and multiple factors are involved (pesticides, pathogens, environment). During recent work, we have noticed that viral and bacterial infections are occurring mainly during spring and are strongly reduced later on. This has been published in Veterinary Research (see paper enclosed). At present, we have two hypotheses: either antiviral/antibacterial products are transferred from queens to offspring over the eggs or antiviral/antibacterial products are transferred from workers to larvae through jelly. It is also very well possible that it is a combination. In the project ‘B-immune’, we will look for the mechanisms that are underlying this transgenerational defense.

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