Following the completion of my PhD I will now be starting a Postdoc position funded by NERC Knowledge exchange, in partnership with the Bumblebee conservation trust and Natural England. Following the findings of my PhD on the pathogen spillover threat from commercially reared bumblebees, i will be applying those findings to design new screening protocols. Working with regulating bodies and the bumblebee rearing industry this short position is designed to try and establish a standardized, informative screening procedure for industry and conservation bodies to utilize. This position is only a few months long and based at the University of Sussex. Despite the short duration, it offers a great opportunity to apply my findings and further improve the regulations and practices involved in the rearing and importation of commercial bumblebees.
Nosema ceranae in bumblebees
In this new article, i share my findings.
Nosema ceranae, a known Asian parasite of honey bees, implicated in colony losses, is now infecting bumblebees! Following the parasites spread from Asian to European honey bees, Nosema ceranae is now found in most temperate countries.
After using sensitive molecular screening methods on almost 800 wild-caught bumblebees from the UK, I detect the honey bee parasite Nosema ceranae in several bumblebee species.
We find that following infection by this parasite, bumblebees show increased mortality and reduced sensitivity to sucrose (a measure of learning/foraging ability).
Discovering a high prevalence of Nosema ceranae in a range of bumblebees species is alarming and demonstrates the cosmopolitan adaptability of this parasite, spilling over from Asian honey bees to European honeybees and now becoming an emerging danger to bumblebees. Sadly, this also highlights yet another harmful threat faced by declining bumblebee populations.
The work was funded by NERC and the bumblebee conservation trust
Trojan Hive results go global!
My latest results, now published, have gone global with major press associations publishing the worry some findings of parasites in commercially imported bumblebees. This morning, in addition to trending on twitter and being picked up by several local media outlets, were also the top science and Environment story on BBC news!
In addition to this, all major news channels in the UK plus some internationals seem to be highlighting my results, Radio interviews are lined up with BBC Scotland and Local, plus pod casts with Voice of Russia.
A busy day!
Biohazard bumblebees?
Results from my newly published work, The Trojan hives highlights imported dangers to native pollinators. Over a million commercially produced bumblebee colonies are imported annually on a
global scale for the pollination of greenhouse crops. After importation, they interact with
other pollinators, with an associated risk of any parasites they carry infecting and harming
native bees.
Following 2 years of monitoring, my research has shown how the majority of commercial bumblebee hives we purchased in 2011 & 2012 contained harmful parasites.
We found microbial parasites in 77% of the commercially produced bumblebee colonies we purchased from three producers, which were imported on the basis of being free of parasites. Following this, we found that a number of these parasites were infective and detrimental to both bumblebees and honey bees.
The results demonstrate that commercially produced bumblebee colonies carry multiple, infectious parasites that pose a significant risk to other native and managed pollinators. More effective disease detection and management strategies are urgently needed to reduce the pathogen spillover threat from commercially produced bumblebees.
Mediterranean field course 2013
Back from co-supervising the 2013 Zoology/Ecology students in Spain. Despite an unusual lack of crab spiders, students still managed to get enough data for a good project/presentation. We also had projects including Messor Harvesting efficiency, Scorpion territories and competition between Messor Sp. and Tapinoma erraticum.
Conference: IUSSI 2012 (Tuscany, Italy)
Returned from a brilliant conference held by the International Union for the Study of Social Insects. So many interesting talks and posters made for a great experience and plenty of new ideas and directions for further research!
Whilst there i presented some work that’s currently in prep for publication. The talk was titled ‘The Trojan Hives’ and i got good feedback and a couple of ideas for improvements to the manuscript.
Conference (Double): Royal Entomological Society (Cambridge, UK)
Back from two conferences in Cambridge organised by the Royal Entomological Society.
The first was a special interest group conference (Infection and Immunity) which was interesting with much of the research being done on well established model systems leaving me a little bitter that so much foundation work is still to be done on the humble bumblebee!
Following this one day meeting, it was over to Ento’12,again hosted by the RES and this was themed on insects in agriculture (paying tribute Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”). There’s currently some very interesting research being done on pesticide effects on insects, including pollinators and this area seems like it will continue to find worrying findings as more focus is brought upon it.
Whilst there, I presented some work currently in prep for publication and despite talking a little beyond the allotted time, it went down well.
All in all, a busy week meeting lots of new faces and hearing some interesting ideas.
Spain 2012
Sometimes, the most desirable tool, is an item of cutlery! Here is a picture of Chris Tranter and I, taking a closer look at some of the local ant colonies. When we weren’t doing this, we had students working on various projects including Messor ant scouting behaviour, forager recruitment in Camponotus ants and arthropod diversity.
Mount Kilimanjaro summit: reached. Donations target: Surpassed!
On Saturday 11th Feb, David and I climbed to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain in the world. Tired and cold, knowing how much we were raising for the ME association kept us going.
Having now got home, uploaded the photos, and recovered from itchy mosquito bites, peeling skin and yearnings for KFC, we’re pleased to have reached our charity target for the ME association! The ME association has received over £1000 in donations plus an additional £195.87 in gift aid from our justgiving page which we find phenomenal and far surpasses our expectations! Thank you all so much for this significant contribution which we hope goes along way to helping ME sufferers and we also hope by doing this, we have further raised awareness for ME/CFS.
The donation page will remain open for a short time so if you wish to further add to our success, then please do so! http://www.justgiving.com/pete-david-kilimanjaro
Raising money for the ME association
As some of you know, in Feb 2012 I will be climbing Mt Kilimanjaro which will take 6 days, at an altitude of 19,341ft when no doubt I will be woefully underprepared. I’m doing this to raise money and awareness for sufferers of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which affects around a quarter of a million people in the UK alone.
Like me, some of you know Katie Warwick who is a sufferer, so you will already know a little about the reality of this disease and will understand how worthwhile a cause this is.
Those who haven’t come across this disease before, CFS can be debilitating, causing not just fatigue but also chronic pain. Its causes are still not fully understood and recovering from what can be a long-lasting illness is often based more on management than total cure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0w9-eQ_fKQ
There’s not a lot I can do to help my friend, or indeed CFS sufferers in general, though it seems in many cases, the Doctors can’t completely help either. What I can do, and will do however is try to raise awareness of the disease. Raising awareness amongst friends and strangers alike and hopefully as I go, I may raise some money for the ME association who will further increase awareness and research into the treatment of CFS.
I have a justgiving page for sponsorship, please, post this link around to help me raise awareness. If you have money to donate too, please do. (http://www.justgiving.com/pete-david-kilimanjaro)
There will soon be an article about this in the ME newsletter and we hope to raise as much as possible before Feb when David and I will climb Kilimanjaro, and I will know, regardless of how tired and painful it gets, it’s nothing compared to what CFS sufferers have to go through.
Please share the link: http://www.justgiving.com/pete-david-kilimanjaro
Disease resistance in a weaver ant, Polyrhachis dives, and the role of antibiotic-producing glands
Here we used the generalist entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium to compare the disease resistance of a species of a weaver ant, Polyrhachis dives, which has lost the metapleural gland, with that of the well-studied leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior and two other ant species, Myrmica ruginodis and Formica fusca, all of which have metapleural glands.
It appears that the evolutionary loss of the metapleural gland does not result in reduced disease resistance in P. dives weaver ants, and that this at least in part may be due to the ants having antimicrobial venom and high self-grooming rates. The results therefore emphasise the importance of multiple, complementary mechanisms in the disease resistance of ant societies.
Mediterranean field course 2011
I am back from co-supervising students on the Ecology field trip. Projects this year have included the colony founding success of Polistes wasps, central foraging theory and Wild boar ecology. Altogether making this year really exciting with a lot of ideas for development next year!
Winner of Faculty poster competition
Prize: Today I won the cash prize for ‘Best Poster’ at the 2010 Postgraduate Symposium at the University of Leeds!
My poster, titled ‘Pathogen spillover of exotic parasites to native bumblebees’ showcased some of the preliminary data collected over the first year of my PhD.
“The poster sessions were an opportunity for students to present their research and addressed different scientific themes including molecular and cellular biology, structural molecular biology, plant sciences, cardiovascular and sports science, genetics, ecology and evolution and integrative membrane biology.”
Link to the Postgraduate Symposium website
I’m told its tradition to spend the prize money buying my colleagues drinks… You can’t argue with tradition!
Spain field course 2010
Back from co-supervising the 2010 Ecology field course in Spain. With MSc and Bsc projects ranging from oil beatle behaviour to Messor ant aggression, its been a great trip with all the students doing really well!
Press Release: Protecting Britain’s bumblebees
Press release outlining the main aim of my PhD research
”In a three year Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)- funded study PhD student Pete Graystock will screen native and foreign bumblebees as using advanced molecular techniques to identify parasite DNA. They will also investigate the affects of parasites on bee health.
The research, co-supervised by Professor Dave Goulson and Dr Ben Darvil co-founders of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, will be used to inform conservation strategies and potentially improve screening for imported bees.”
PhD: Pathogen spillover from commercial bumblebee hives
PhD: I’ve embarked on a 3.5 year research PhD investigating pathogen spillover from commercial bumblebees colonies to native bees. Based at the University of Leeds with Dr William Hughes, the work will be done in partnership with the bumblebee conservation trust.
Save the bees!
The Amazon
A week living in a hut in the middle of the Amazon, surrounded by insects…my idea of heaven!!