Beekeeping webinar

Central State University, Ohio’s only 1890 Land-Grant institution, will host its third in a series of “Beekeeping Happy Hour Webinar Series,” beginning at 6 p.m., Wednesday.

The Beekeeping Summer Webinar Series is hosted by Central State University Assistant Professor of Entomology Hongmei

Li-Byarlay, Ph.D. The series of one-hour webinars will focus on bee management and research with several nationally known bee experts.

The next webinar will feature “Honey Bee Queen And Virus Infections: Transmission Routes And Consequences” with Dr. Esmaeil Amiri, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

“The honey bee queen is the central hub of a colony to produce eggs and release pheromones to maintain social cohesion. Among many environmental stresses, viruses are a major concern to compromise the queen’s health and reproductive vigor,” he says.

“Over 30 viruses have been discovered from honey bees, which have evolved numerous strategies to infect queens either via vertical transmission from the queens’ parents or horizontally through the worker and drones with which she is in contact during development, while mating, and in the reproductive period in the colony.”

Dr. Amiri will discuss multiple transmission routes that viruses use to infect the queen and also the pathogenicity and direct impact of viruses on the queen’s phenotype.

All webinars are free and open to the public. No pre-registration is required.

To register or for more information, contact Dr. Cindy Folck at afolck@CentralState.edu. STAFF REPORT