You read that right- there is now a vaccine to help protect honeybees from disease. The USDA recently granted a conditional license for a vaccine to protect the country?s honeybees from foulbrood disease. The vaccine was developed by Dalan Animal Health, a small biotech company working primarily on bee diseases. Amy Floyd, field technician and beekeeper relations for Dalan Animal Health, explained more about the devastating bee disease.
The disease is a spore-forming bacteria, which can spread especially fast. It primarily infects the larvae and then the worker bees before spreading throughout the hive. To build the larvae’s immunity, Floyd said the queen is vaccinated before she goes into the hive with some of the bacteria in a jelly, which is fed to her by worker bees.
Floyd added that the vaccine should be available in the spring of this year. For more information, visit Dalan.com.
