A new study led by Prof. Ernesto Guzman, School of Environmental Sciences, was featured in the Globe and Mail May 21 and on CBC radio May 26.
The study examined how a gene linked to grooming could be the key to saving honeybees from the deadly varroa mite. Varroa mites cling to a bee’s body and feed off its blood. The findings raise the possibility that bees can be bred to resist the mites, said Guzman.
The director of the Honey Bee Research Centre at the University of Guelph studies the genetics, behaviour and parasitic mites of honeybees.