BEES

Small hive beetle

Greg Worley, Hugh Cai

The small hive beetle (SHB) is an emerging honeybee pest in Canada that is capable of damaging and stressing colonies in addition to causing honey spoilage. Although SHB has been reported in various parts of Canada including Ontario, it was the increase in reports of SHB in 2015 that led to the development of a provincial strategy for the management of SHB in order to limit its impact and spread.

The University of Guelph’s Animal Health Laboratory (AHL) with support from the Disease Surveillance Plan (DSP) has developed a substantive panel of tests for apiary pathogens (see callout box to the right). The partnership between the AHL and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) is exemplified by the AHL’s laboratory test for SHB.

The AHL is able to provide rapid and accurate confirmation of SHB by comparing the genetic material of the submitted specimen against known positive SHB nucleic acid. This confirmatory testing of SHB specimens is an example of how the AHL assists the provincial government in responding to threats to the health of managed honeybees using the Ontario Bees Act regulation. Given this expertise, other provincial governments are now submitting suspected SHB samples to AHL for confirmatory testing.