Virus Testing for Kentucky Honey Bees

We will develop the infrastructure to assess patterns of viral infection among Kentucky honey bee hives, resulting in a self-sustaining viral testing service to state beekeepers. We will leverage the expertise and equipment from Dr. Clare Rittschof (University of Kentucky) to develop the bioassays required for viral assessment. To determine assay efficacy, we will test how nutritional stress impacts viral presence and abundance, particularly for viruses with unusually high infection rates in Kentucky.