Beekeepers' perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe.
Pressures on honey bee health have substantially increased both colony mortality and beekeepers' costs for hive management across Europe. Although technological advances could offer cost-effective solutions to these challenges, there is little research into the incentives and barriers to techno...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316609 |
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| author | Elena Cini Simon G Potts Deepa Senapathi Matthias Albrecht Karim Arafah Dalel Askri Michel Bocquet Philippe Bulet Cecilia Costa Pilar De la Rúa Alexandra-Maria Klein Anina Knauer Marika Mänd Risto Raimets Oliver Schweiger Jane C Stout Tom D Breeze |
| author_facet | Elena Cini Simon G Potts Deepa Senapathi Matthias Albrecht Karim Arafah Dalel Askri Michel Bocquet Philippe Bulet Cecilia Costa Pilar De la Rúa Alexandra-Maria Klein Anina Knauer Marika Mänd Risto Raimets Oliver Schweiger Jane C Stout Tom D Breeze |
| author_sort | Elena Cini |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Pressures on honey bee health have substantially increased both colony mortality and beekeepers' costs for hive management across Europe. Although technological advances could offer cost-effective solutions to these challenges, there is little research into the incentives and barriers to technological adoption by beekeepers in Europe. Our study is the first to investigate beekeepers' willingness to adopt the Bee Health Card, a molecular diagnostic tool developed within the PoshBee EU project which can rapidly assess bee health by monitoring molecular changes in bees. The Bee Health Card, based on MALDI BeeTyping®, is currently on level six of the Technology Readiness Level scale, meaning that the technology has been demonstrated in relevant environments. Using an on-line survey from seven European countries, we show that beekeepers recognise the potential for the tool to improve colony health, and that targeted economic incentives, such as subsidises, may help reduce cost being a barrier to the adoption and frequent use of the tool. Based on the description of the tool, 43% of beekeepers appear to be moderately confident in the effectiveness of the Bee Health Card. This confidence could increase if the tool was easy to use and not time consuming, and a higher confidence could also contribute to raising the probability of accepting extra costs linked to it. We estimate that, in the worst-case scenario, the cost per single use of the Bee Health Card should be between €47-90 across a range of European countries, depending on the labour and postage costs. However, the monetary benefits in terms of honey production could exceed this. In order to successfully tackle colony health issues, it is recommended using the BHC five times per year, from the end to the beginning of winter. Finally, we discuss the knowledge needs for assessing beekeeper health tools in future research. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6bb7f2d146644bac9386e7681cef961b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-6bb7f2d146644bac9386e7681cef961b2025-02-05T05:31:27ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01201e031660910.1371/journal.pone.0316609Beekeepers' perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe.Elena CiniSimon G PottsDeepa SenapathiMatthias AlbrechtKarim ArafahDalel AskriMichel BocquetPhilippe BuletCecilia CostaPilar De la RúaAlexandra-Maria KleinAnina KnauerMarika MändRisto RaimetsOliver SchweigerJane C StoutTom D BreezePressures on honey bee health have substantially increased both colony mortality and beekeepers' costs for hive management across Europe. Although technological advances could offer cost-effective solutions to these challenges, there is little research into the incentives and barriers to technological adoption by beekeepers in Europe. Our study is the first to investigate beekeepers' willingness to adopt the Bee Health Card, a molecular diagnostic tool developed within the PoshBee EU project which can rapidly assess bee health by monitoring molecular changes in bees. The Bee Health Card, based on MALDI BeeTyping®, is currently on level six of the Technology Readiness Level scale, meaning that the technology has been demonstrated in relevant environments. Using an on-line survey from seven European countries, we show that beekeepers recognise the potential for the tool to improve colony health, and that targeted economic incentives, such as subsidises, may help reduce cost being a barrier to the adoption and frequent use of the tool. Based on the description of the tool, 43% of beekeepers appear to be moderately confident in the effectiveness of the Bee Health Card. This confidence could increase if the tool was easy to use and not time consuming, and a higher confidence could also contribute to raising the probability of accepting extra costs linked to it. We estimate that, in the worst-case scenario, the cost per single use of the Bee Health Card should be between €47-90 across a range of European countries, depending on the labour and postage costs. However, the monetary benefits in terms of honey production could exceed this. In order to successfully tackle colony health issues, it is recommended using the BHC five times per year, from the end to the beginning of winter. Finally, we discuss the knowledge needs for assessing beekeeper health tools in future research.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316609 |
| spellingShingle | Elena Cini Simon G Potts Deepa Senapathi Matthias Albrecht Karim Arafah Dalel Askri Michel Bocquet Philippe Bulet Cecilia Costa Pilar De la Rúa Alexandra-Maria Klein Anina Knauer Marika Mänd Risto Raimets Oliver Schweiger Jane C Stout Tom D Breeze Beekeepers' perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe. PLoS ONE |
| title | Beekeepers' perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe. |
| title_full | Beekeepers' perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe. |
| title_fullStr | Beekeepers' perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beekeepers' perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe. |
| title_short | Beekeepers' perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe. |
| title_sort | beekeepers perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in europe |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316609 |
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