ACBA Zoom Meeting Tuesday at 7:30: Declan Schroeder, What is killing our bees?

[Rob Mathews, 2025 ACBA President]

Hi Folks! A reminder that tomorrow's (October 21) ACBA Zoom-only meeting at 7:30 PM will be a presentation by Dr. Declan Schroeder on the topic of "What is killing our bees?"

In 2025, 60% of honeybee colonies died in the United States. Dr. Schroeder’s research team was the first to confirm that Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) load, and its association with Varroa destructor (Varroa), are responsible for the death of millions of honey bee colonies.

Dr. Schroeder is a professor in the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine at the University of Minnesota, and has published papers on varroa mites, deformed wing virus, and more.

Here's the direct link to join the Zoom meeting. You can find more information (which always includes a link to join the meeting if you misplace this message) on the club website at www.alamedabees.org. See you Tuesday night!

[Rob Mathews, 2025 ACBA President]

On October 21, our speaker was Dr. Declan Schroeder on the topic of "What is killing our bees?" Club members can now view a recording of that presentation on the club website here.

Dr. Schroeder is a molecular virologist who has identified two distinct strains of the virus (DWV-A and DWV-B) in the US that are about equally prevalent. However, he believes that the "A" strain is much more harmful to colonies than the "B" strain. In the UK, the "A" strain has mostly died out and been taken over by the "B" strain, which he believes is much less harmful -- and that this accounts for the lower annual loss of bee colonies in the UK.

What does this mean for us? Will DWV-B take over in the US and "save our bees"?! That's just one of the many interesting things he talked about.

We had positive feedback from well-known experts Randy Oliver and Dewey Caron about this presentation, and it's worth watching if you're interested in how bee viruses work.