Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub

Honeybee health research published in ‘Environmental DNA’ journal

Figure 1 Metacoder figure updated 2000px
Figure 1 Metacoder figure updated 2000px

 

Honeybee health research published in

‘Environmental DNA’ journal

Environmental DNA study reveals hive health insights

 

By Jessi Henneken, Research Scientist, Agriculture Victoria Research (AVR), Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), AgriBio, Centre for AgriBioscience

 

Research carried out by Agriculture Victoria has been highlighted in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental DNA. The study was part of a project funded by the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub through its North-West Irrigated Horticulture Node, the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre.

 

Paper co-authors: Francesco Martoni, Reannon Smith, Alex Piper, Brendan Rodoni and Jessi Henneken

 

Jessi with beehives
Caption: Jessi Henneken with the beehives.

Why honeybee health matters

 

About one third of Australian produce relies on honeybee pollination. Tools that monitor hive health can help industry and governments respond quickly to threats, including exotic pests and diseases. This project tested whether traceability devices and environmental DNA (eDNA) surveillance can be used to monitor honeybee hives more effectively.

eDNA is genetic material left behind when organisms interact with their environment. For insect pests, this might be a body part or other biological traces, while for bacteria and fungi it may be part of, or an entire, organism.

 

What the study investigated

 

The paper, titled Molecular Surveillance of Honeybee Hives Using eDNA Metabarcoding During Pollination Season, describes the methods and results of the eDNA surveillance work. Researchers collected eDNA samples from hives in Mildura during the pollination season, then analysed them in the laboratory using metabarcoding, a technique capable of detecting DNA from multiple species at once.

Across all hives, the team detected around 500 insect species, some 3,000 bacteria species and 800 fungi species. These included well‑known pests and pathogens, microbes associated with healthy colonies, and beneficial species such as wasps that parasitise wax moths.

 

The ‘Environmental DNA’ article, “Molecular surveillance of honey bee hives using eDNA metabarcoding during pollination season”, is available via the Wiley Online Library

 

Figure 1 Metacoder figure updated
Figure 1: Metacoder

Building better tools for hive health

 

Publishing this research in a peer‑reviewed journal makes the methods and findings accessible to the wider scientific community. Other researchers can build on this work to advance tools and technologies that monitor and support hive health at scale.

 

Learn more about the project

 

This work is part of the Vic Hub project Monitoring Hive Health, which is exploring how integrated technologies can improve pollination security for horticulture and broader agricultural systems.