CLEANHIVE

Title

DETECTING THE PATHOGEN THAT THREATENES EUROPEAN BEES

Description

INTRODUCTION

CLEANHIVE is a "Research for SMEs Associations" Project funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme.

Framework programmes are the main financial tools through which the European Union supports research and development activities, covering almost all scientific disciplines.

"Research for SMEs Associations" projects aim at developing technical solutions to solve problems and cover needs common to a large number of SMEs in associations of specific industrial sectors, as the beekeeping sector.

Overall objective of the "Research for SMEs Associations programme" is providing financial support to SME-AGs to outsource research and technological development, with the view of acquiring intellectual property rights (preferably ownership) to the project results, giving direct access to the later market. Therefore effective dissemination and take up of results is also promoted.

Through European Commission funding, the technology developed in this project can be shared by 4 SME Associations, with no monetary contribution required on their part. With an "in-kind" participation only, this small group of Associations will share the technology, thus accessing over 2 million Euros worth of resources over the three-year work programme.

THE NEED AND THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

Honey bees are extremely important to the economy of European agriculture and are worth billions of Euros as honey producers and crop pollinators. Pollination is also of considerable importance to the environment.

However, survival of the European honey bees is seriously compromised and, with it, the beekeeping sector.

Massive deaths of honey bees have taken place all over Europe and other continents in the past years, especially since 2004 due to "Depopulation Syndrome" or "Colony collapse disorder" phenomenon. This disease has been recently related with the infection by Nosema ceranae.

Nosema ceranae was initially restricted to Asiatic bees but it is now considered to be widespreading. It probably has invaded Europe in the past years due to the international trade of bees and hive equipment. Nosema ceranae is a highly virulent pathogen and it induces high colony losses.

Moreover there is a closely related pathogen, Nosema apis quite common all over the world that may cause some economic damage when colonies are heavily infected, but it rarely induces high mortalities as the disease usually drops in summer. Besides Nosema apis is generally not considered highly virulent, making the control of the disease quite easy.

While the spread of the new pathogen, Nosema ceranae, seems to be linked to bee depopulation outbreaks, there are currently no diagnostic tests for both species adapted to the needs of beekeepers.

Consequently, there is an urgent and timely need to develop methods to help beekeepers in the detection of this virulent pathogen, so as to control its spread and reduce its dramatic economic impact on the beekeeping sector.

OBJECTIVES

Develop an efficient and cost-effective tool for the detection and identification of both Nosema species under field conditions to stop the spread of Nosema ceranae. This diagnostic tool will be designed following beekeeper¡¦s needs in terms of:

- Speed
- Specificity
- Sensitivity
- Accuracy
- Portability
- Easy to use for non-technical staff.
- Accesible cost

The beekeeping associations being part of this project are determined to develop this new tool and to disseminate its use at European level, as with it the productivity, profitability and competitiveness of the beekeeping sector will be improved and the continuity of the sector ensured. Also the benefits of pollination to the European economy will be guaranteed.

THE BENEFITS AND THE MARKET POSSIBILITIES

The scientific results of this project will lead to important competitive advantages through the development of a new detection tool. And apart from the direct benefits obtained from the application of the new technology, measures will be carried out to ensure the optimal dissemination, use and exploitation of the project results.

Potential markets, customers, competitors, suppliers and distributors will be identified and a business plan as well as an exploitation strategy will be developed.

Especially the SMEs associations will be on charge of carrying out these tasks.

Status

Started

Starting Date: 01/10/2008  Duration: 3 years

Partners Information

Photo

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Contact mail:

cleanhive@cric.cat

News

02/03/2010 - CLEANHIVE 18 months General Project Meeting

The CLEANHIVE 18 months General Project Meeting was held last 2nd of March in Ayora (Valencia, Spain). During this meeting a review of the progress of the technical work as well as of the non-technical work of the project was done.

21/09/2009 - CLEANHIVE 12 months General Project Meeting

The CLEANHIVE 12 months General Project Meeting was held last 21st of September in Montpellier (France). During this meeting a review of the progress of the technical work as well as of the non-technical work of the project was done.

24/03/2009 - CLEANHIVE 6 moths General Project Meeting

The CLEANHIVE 6 months General Project Meeting was held last 24th and 25th of March in Sofia (Bulgaria). During this meeting a review of the progress of the technical work as well as of the non-technical work of the project was done. Besides, the new management strategy for future work as well as the action plans for each partner were presented. Also a Knowledge Management seminar was given to the partners by the Project Manager.

26/11/2008 - Technical meeting

The Project Manager, Irene Gonzalez, met with CSL, FORSITE and UCM in York (England) last 26th of November, 2008. In this meeting, the general action plans, the scientific work in progress as well as future work of WP2 and WP3 were discussed.

21/10/2008 - Kick-off meeting

The first Consortium meeting of the CLEANHIVE project took place Tuesday 21st of October in Barcelona. This was the first opportunity for the project partners to meet all together and to become more familiar with the CLEANHIVE project, its objectives and its work program.

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