Team Assignment Highlight: Dr. Ethel Villalobos & Scott Nikaido

In May 2017, University of Hawaii-Manoa (UH) professor, Dr. Ethel Villalobos and UH graduate student, Scott Nikaido, traveled to the regions of Valverde and Monte Cristi in the northeast of the Dominican Republic, where they surveyed eight apiaries and made recommendations on beekeeping management. The objective of this F2F team assignment was to provide hands-on training to banana producers of the Banelino Association on the development and implementation of apiculture projects for honey production. As part of this assignment, Dr. Villalobos and Mr. Nikaido worked alongside Banelino staff and led workshops focused on production techniques and technologies for honey bees and queen rearing. The volunteers also assisted Banelino by identifying the best set of endemic flowers for beekeeping and ways that local farmers could improve their apiculture management practices in order to optimize honey production.

Dr. Villalobos during her visit to Partners HQ in October 2017

Throughout their assignment, they noticed several critical practices that the producers were not implementing, including the use of proper clothing and protection gear. In addition, following colony inspections, the volunteer team suggested changes that needed to be made in order to improve colony health. According to Dr. Villalobos, there is a series of challenges afflicting the country’s honeybees. These issues include: (1) hunger and starvation; (2) poor location of apiaries; (3) poor equipment condition; (4) little understanding of bee management; and (4) limited knowledge of honey plants. As a result, the team stressed the need for Banelino to conduct outreach promoting colony health to producers, in addition to further training regarding colony management and honey production. Through these recommendations, the team believes producers will be able to improve their overall beekeeping and honey production operations.

Among the many outcomes of this team assignment, an unexpected and significant discovery was made related to the origin of many of the honey bees seen at the apiaries. During their site visits, Dr. Villalobos and Mr. Nikaido noticed that several bees exhibited defensive behaviors and had other distinctive characteristics from typical European honey bees known to the region. In response, the two volunteers decided to collect bee samples from several apiaries across the country that they could take with them to test at the UH Honeybee Project’s molecular laboratory upon their return. In total, the team collected 41 honey bees from fifteen apiaries located across eight provinces in the country. Test results, based on maternal DNA, showed that many of the bees were in fact Africanized honey bees (AHB), particularly those collected from the northwest region of the country (see map below). Due to the necessary protective measures that need to be taken when dealing with AHB, the team decided to submit their findings to a scientific journal, which was recently published in May 2018. While Africanized bees are more resistant to bee pests and diseases, they tend to be more defensive and therefore need to be managed differently over European honey bees. In the article, Dr. Villalobos and Mr. Nikaido stress the importance of further study into the prevalence of AHB in the country, and to a larger extent the entire island. They also recommended building awareness about the situation and conducting outreach to hive managers about proper management practices and safety measures.

The efforts of both Mr. Nikaido and Dr. Villalobos proved to be beneficial not just for F2F host Banelino and their banana producers, but also for the entire beekeeping community in the country. The discovery of AHB will require continued support to better understand its impact in the country and to raise awareness among beekeepers. The F2F program hopes to continue working with Dominican beekeepers to build on the progress made by the volunteer team.

Map of regions sampled for AHB (*indicated no AHB detected)[1]

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[1] Scott S Nikaido, Ethel M Villalobos, Niyra R Castillo, Ana Cubero Murillo, John M Rodríguez & Rafael Marte Aracena (2018) Detection of Africanized bees in the Dominican Republic, Journal of Apicultural Research, 57:3, 351-353, DOI: 10.1080/00218839.2018.1447838