Team:NAWI Graz/integrated
Key objectives
Acceptance of the method by beekeepers and beekeeping institutions
Adaption of the method with the continuous feedback of beekeepers and beekeeping institutions
Niko bei Slovenen
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17.05.2019 – Interview with Mark Schäfer from the national reference laboratory for bee diseases
To get a first impression of the disease and the current situation, we did an email-interview with Marc Schäfer from the german national reference laboratory for bee diseases at the Friedrich Loeffler Institut in Greifswald, Germany.
25.05.2019 – First visit at the local beekeeping associatiation
We went to the local beekeeping school “Steirische Imkerschule” of the styrian regional beekeeping association
There we got in touch with beekeeping, listened to some presentations and talks about beekeeping and built the connections with the team of the beekeeping school.
There we got in touch with beekeeping, listened to some presentations and talks about beekeeping and built the connections with the team of the beekeeping school.
Our visit at the laboratory of the beekeeping school was helpful to get a feeling for the risks and the workflow of Paenibacillus larvae research. We talked with the laboratory manager Andreas Fritsch, who showed us how he works with P. larvae.
Learning from experienced practitioners by seeing their working method, getting concrete and detailed information about specific problems and solutions and finding potential dangers is very valuable, especially at the early stage of a project.
Learning from experienced practitioners by seeing their working method, getting concrete and detailed information about specific problems and solutions and finding potential dangers is very valuable, especially at the early stage of a project.
We also had a first talk with the director and presented our rough idea of doing a quantitative measurement of Paenibacillus larvae. His general approval of our project gave us some additional motivation.
Furthermore his feedback led us to a more application-oriented path. Initially the idea was to adapt the Phage-EIS-method to AFB, which shifted more and more to the development of complete device, which can be used by beekeepers.
We adopted to the new tasks by getting
biomedical engineers on board, which then started with planning and building a small device, capable of doing the measurement.
At this point it was clear that we would need feedback from beekeepers. That is why we developed a survey, to reach as many beekeepers as possible with a reasonable amount of effort. We planned to disseminate the survey via the most influential medium for beekeeping in Austria: the Biene aktuell, a monthly journal for beekeepers and experts. See more under “Survey”
At this point it was clear that we would need feedback from beekeepers. That is why we developed a survey, to reach as many beekeepers as possible with a reasonable amount of effort. We planned to disseminate the survey via the most influential medium for beekeeping in Austria: the Biene aktuell, a monthly journal for beekeepers and experts. See more under “Survey”
27.06.2019 – Talk with Bernhard Weber
With the idea in mind, that the project can be commercialized we contacted Bernhard Weber from the ZWI
(Center for the Transfer of Knowledge and Innovation). He gave us some very insightful information about possibilities of further developing our project
after iGEM. His general knowledge about starting a business and the transition from science to economy was interesting and furthered our focus on developing a product and not only testing the detetction of Paenibacillus larvae with phages.
He also encouraged us to talk with Prof. Thomas Schmickl, which we did later.
He also encouraged us to talk with Prof. Thomas Schmickl, which we did later.
02.07.2019 – Talk with Prof. Thomas Schmickl and his group from the artificial life lab
When we found out there is a EU-funded project about a modern beehive and a new way of beekeeping we really wanted to talk with the researchers involved.
The Artificial life lab at the Department for Zoology at the University of Graz (Austria) coordinates Hiveopolis, which has several more labs around Europe working on the topic.
It could be possible to integrate our biosensor in their highly equipped beehive, but that would require drastic changes to the method. We discussed a few ideas with Prof. Thomas Schmickl and his team and found them interesting, but difficult to implement at this stage of development. So we decided that we would focus on the concept of non-autonomous measurements, at least for now.
It could be possible to integrate our biosensor in their highly equipped beehive, but that would require drastic changes to the method. We discussed a few ideas with Prof. Thomas Schmickl and his team and found them interesting, but difficult to implement at this stage of development. So we decided that we would focus on the concept of non-autonomous measurements, at least for now.
23.07.2019 – Interview with Dipl.-Ing. Hemma Kögelberger fromAges
The AGES is the the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety and has a department for bees and bee health.
That is also the national reference laboratory, a “report point” as per the Bienenseuchengesetz, the Austrian law for bee diseases.
Furthermore they do research on issues of bee health.
We arranged an interview with one of the researchers, to learn about the positions of the official health-institutions. Knowing what the official position is and getting in touch with representatives is a good way to see, if there is a possibility of collaborating with official bodies, which is relevant, as the handling of the disease is regulated by law. It would therefore be of great use to integrate our method in the legal provisions.
You can find answers to the most important questions below.
We arranged an interview with one of the researchers, to learn about the positions of the official health-institutions. Knowing what the official position is and getting in touch with representatives is a good way to see, if there is a possibility of collaborating with official bodies, which is relevant, as the handling of the disease is regulated by law. It would therefore be of great use to integrate our method in the legal provisions.
You can find answers to the most important questions below.
05.08.2019 – Second visit at the local beekeeping association
After the promising first talk with the director of the Styrian beekeeping association we
were looking forward to discuss Beeosensor in detail with him and learn more about possibilities and problems linked to our project.
ausklapp Text
We also learned about the teams experience with AFB and the link between spore concentrations and the clinical outbreak of the disease, what the legal requirements are and how they as practitioners handle this disease. The Seuchengesetz prevents initiative e.g. from local beekeeping associations and the always need be creative if they want to help the beekeepers the most.
It was even more interesting to see the pure theoretical approach we knew from our research and the reality, where real people and real, sometimes unpredictable complications require a more “human” approach.
We learned that some beekeepers avoid getting detected with AFB by sending manipulated samples to the voluntary (!) laboratory tests. Beekeepers are often elderly people in rural structures and therefore you sometimes need a feeling for those communities to communicate and collaborate effectively with them.
This conversation really gave us a deeper feeling for an other side of the Austrian beekeeping community, outside of the necessarily uncomplete media coverage and the public perception of beekeeping.
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Several members of our team met with the director of the Styrian beekeeping association Maximilian Marek (second from the left, standing)
ausklapp Text
We also learned about the teams experience with AFB and the link between spore concentrations and the clinical outbreak of the disease, what the legal requirements are and how they as practitioners handle this disease. The Seuchengesetz prevents initiative e.g. from local beekeeping associations and the always need be creative if they want to help the beekeepers the most.
It was even more interesting to see the pure theoretical approach we knew from our research and the reality, where real people and real, sometimes unpredictable complications require a more “human” approach.
We learned that some beekeepers avoid getting detected with AFB by sending manipulated samples to the voluntary (!) laboratory tests. Beekeepers are often elderly people in rural structures and therefore you sometimes need a feeling for those communities to communicate and collaborate effectively with them.
This conversation really gave us a deeper feeling for an other side of the Austrian beekeeping community, outside of the necessarily uncomplete media coverage and the public perception of beekeeping.
Felix met with Andreas Platzer from the Imkerbund Südtirol in South Tyrol at a local beekeeping event, the “Honey Days”.
We wanted to get some more professional input and wanted to know, what he thinks of the commercialization of Beeosensor.
Until now we only had major contact with experts and beekeepers from Styria and wanted to get some more information about how it looks in other places.
23.08.2019 – Interview with Andreas Platzer – Imkerbund Südtirol
The AGES is the the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety and has a department for bees and bee health.
That is also the national reference laboratory, a “report point” as per the Bienenseuchengesetz, the Austrian law for bee diseases.
Furthermore they do research on issues of bee health.
We arranged an interview with one of the researchers, to learn about the positions of the official health-institutions. Knowing what the official position is and getting in touch with representatives is a good way to see, if there is a possibility of collaborating with official bodies, which is relevant, as the handling of the disease is regulated by law. It would therefore be of great use to integrate our method in the legal provisions.
You can find answers to the most important questions below.
We arranged an interview with one of the researchers, to learn about the positions of the official health-institutions. Knowing what the official position is and getting in touch with representatives is a good way to see, if there is a possibility of collaborating with official bodies, which is relevant, as the handling of the disease is regulated by law. It would therefore be of great use to integrate our method in the legal provisions.
You can find answers to the most important questions below.
25.09.2019 – Interview with Dr. Andreas Schierling
We also talked to Dr. Andreas Schierling from the Bavarian animal health service
25.09.2019 – Discussion with beekeepers at the „Mittwochsakedmie“ of the beekeeping school.
A final visit at the beekeeping school was the presentation of our project to Styrian beekeepers. This so called “Wednesdays academy” was the perfect possibility
for us to get in touch with many beekeepers and hear about their concerns and questions.
After the presentation we discussed several topics from taking the sample to the actual measurement. It was vey motivating to see how interested the beekeepers are in our project.
There we also were contacted by a Start-Up for a beekeeping app. They want to gather all the relevant information for beekeepers and present it in an app, so that the beekeepers don’t have to search for all the information, which is difficult to find at best or simply not available at worst. They are interested in our concept and would like to use the information from beekeepers about the intensity of infestation of AFB in a certain region. We included this question in our survey (see dingsbums) and as many beekeepers surprisingly are open to share their data, if it is sufficiently anonymized, this is a real option. We would need to adopt the device and include an interface for smartphones, which is definitely possible.
After the presentation we discussed several topics from taking the sample to the actual measurement. It was vey motivating to see how interested the beekeepers are in our project.
There we also were contacted by a Start-Up for a beekeeping app. They want to gather all the relevant information for beekeepers and present it in an app, so that the beekeepers don’t have to search for all the information, which is difficult to find at best or simply not available at worst. They are interested in our concept and would like to use the information from beekeepers about the intensity of infestation of AFB in a certain region. We included this question in our survey (see dingsbums) and as many beekeepers surprisingly are open to share their data, if it is sufficiently anonymized, this is a real option. We would need to adopt the device and include an interface for smartphones, which is definitely possible.
Survey
We conducted a survey among beekeepers to examine the knowledge about AFB and potential of Beeosensor. We wanted to know how the beekeepers see AFB and what they think about the current situation.
Furthermore we wanted them to give us some insight on how open they are for new methods, which obstacles Beeosensor would face and how we can adopt our method to the wishes of beekeepers.
This was of special importance to us and guided us through the most part of our project and short talks with a few beekeepers, the knowledge of two members who are beekeepers and discussions with experts were not enough to fulfil the need for feedback.
We wanted more feedback from potential users and therefore we conducted the survey, which was promoted in the Austrian beekeeping journal “Biene aktuell”.
The survey clearly is not representative, as it was only available online and only already interested beekeepers would participate. Nevertheless we gained some interesting insights, which are not affected by the size of the participating group.
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The survey clearly is not representative, as it was only available online and only already interested beekeepers would participate. Nevertheless we gained some interesting insights, which are not affected by the size of the participating group.
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| Firstname | Lastname | |
|---|---|---|
| John | Doe | john@example.com |
| Mary | Moe | mary@example.com |
| July | Dooley | july@example.com |
Safety and Sustainability
Reusable Electrodes
Initially we planned to use cheap one-use-electrodes, which would be discarded after every measurement.
Increased thoughts about the environmental consequences have led to the search for other options.
We came up with the idea of reusable electrodes with a higher quality and a recycling system:
The beekeeper or the local Beeosensor-Group (beekeepers, who share one device) will use the electrodes and give them back to us. We will safely remove the Redox-reagent and clean the electrode by …………………………………
Reusing the electrodes can compensate for the higher costs and maybe even overcompensate them, depending on how often they will be reused.
We came up with the idea of reusable electrodes with a higher quality and a recycling system:
The beekeeper or the local Beeosensor-Group (beekeepers, who share one device) will use the electrodes and give them back to us. We will safely remove the Redox-reagent and clean the electrode by …………………………………
Reusing the electrodes can compensate for the higher costs and maybe even overcompensate them, depending on how often they will be reused.
Phages
The phages we are currently using is HB10c2, a Paenibacillus phage isolated from a beehive in Celle in northern Germany by our advisor Hannes Beims (link zu Memberseite). Other Phages we could work with have been isolated from beehives as well,
one in Portugal and others in the US.
We did not genetically modify the phages.
Phages are ubiquitous and accumulate, if their host locally has a high density, as it is the case in an infected bee larvae. The host spectrum of the phage is very limited (link zu Beims Paper) and will do no harm to the ecosystem, even if released in a high concentration. The harmlessness is proven so well, that even a therapy of AFB with phages is legal. The company Broodsafe™©® (Website ist down, ansonsten paper verlinken) produces Paenibacillus phages, which can be used by beekeepers to treat American foulbrood..
Even if the immobilized phages from the electrode are released into the environment, there are no negative consequences to be expected.
We did not genetically modify the phages.
Phages are ubiquitous and accumulate, if their host locally has a high density, as it is the case in an infected bee larvae. The host spectrum of the phage is very limited (link zu Beims Paper) and will do no harm to the ecosystem, even if released in a high concentration. The harmlessness is proven so well, that even a therapy of AFB with phages is legal. The company Broodsafe™©® (Website ist down, ansonsten paper verlinken) produces Paenibacillus phages, which can be used by beekeepers to treat American foulbrood..
Even if the immobilized phages from the electrode are released into the environment, there are no negative consequences to be expected.
Redox-solution
The phages we are currently using is HB10c2, a Paenibacillus phage isolated from a beehive in Celle in northern Germany by our advisor Hannes Beims (link zu Memberseite). Other Phages we could work with have been isolated from beehives as well,
one in Portugal and others in the US.
We did not genetically modify the phages.
Phages are ubiquitous and accumulate, if their host locally has a high density, as it is the case in an infected bee larvae. The host spectrum of the phage is very limited (link zu Beims Paper) and will do no harm to the ecosystem, even if released in a high concentration. The harmlessness is proven so well, that even a therapy of AFB with phages is legal. The company Broodsafe™©® (Website ist down, ansonsten paper verlinken) produces Paenibacillus phages, which can be used by beekeepers to treat American foulbrood..
Even if the immobilized phages from the electrode are released into the environment, there are no negative consequences to be expected.
The EIS-Measurement (link zu protokoll) requires an electroconductive liquid, through which the currency can reach the electrodes.
The use of our solution therefore poses a risk to the beekeeper, which should not be underestimated, especially because beekeepers usually are not properly trained for the use of such substances and may undererstimate the risk for their own health.
Therefore we plan to substitute potassium ferricyanide with an other redox solution with less or no hazardous potential. Before the biosensor is commercialized there definitely needs to be done a intense search for the best and harmless solution.
We did not genetically modify the phages.
Phages are ubiquitous and accumulate, if their host locally has a high density, as it is the case in an infected bee larvae. The host spectrum of the phage is very limited (link zu Beims Paper) and will do no harm to the ecosystem, even if released in a high concentration. The harmlessness is proven so well, that even a therapy of AFB with phages is legal. The company Broodsafe™©® (Website ist down, ansonsten paper verlinken) produces Paenibacillus phages, which can be used by beekeepers to treat American foulbrood..
Even if the immobilized phages from the electrode are released into the environment, there are no negative consequences to be expected.
The EIS-Measurement (link zu protokoll) requires an electroconductive liquid, through which the currency can reach the electrodes.
The standard? protocol we are using works with Potassium ferricyanide which has a low toxicity, mainly due to its irritating effect to skin and eye. Under strong acidic conditions cyanide is released.
Potassium ferrocyanide, which is not toxic and is not decomposed to cyanide in the body, as the cyanide groups are tightly bound to the iron. In the EU it is a food additive for salt (number E 536) with a max dose of 0,025 mg/kg bodyweight. Even if the reagent is not discarded properly by the beekeeper, which might be the case, the effects on the environment are minimal due to the very low volumes (one drop) used.
Potassium ferrocyanide, which is not toxic and is not decomposed to cyanide in the body, as the cyanide groups are tightly bound to the iron2. In the EU it is a food additive3 for salt (number E 536) with a max dose of 0,025 mg/kg bodyweight.
Even if the reagent is not discarded properly by the beekeeper, which might be the case, the effects on the environment are minimal due to the very low volumes (one drop) used.Potassium ferrocyanide, which is not toxic and is not decomposed to cyanide in the body, as the cyanide groups are tightly bound to the iron. In the EU it is a food additive for salt (number E 536) with a max dose of 0,025 mg/kg bodyweight. Even if the reagent is not discarded properly by the beekeeper, which might be the case, the effects on the environment are minimal due to the very low volumes (one drop) used.
The use of our solution therefore poses a risk to the beekeeper, which should not be underestimated, especially because beekeepers usually are not properly trained for the use of such substances and may undererstimate the risk for their own health.
Therefore we plan to substitute potassium ferricyanide with an other redox solution with less or no hazardous potential. Before the biosensor is commercialized there definitely needs to be done a intense search for the best and harmless solution.
Sustainability comparison
We did not perform a detailed comparison between the Beeosensor-method and the current laboratory method for the detection of AFB,
as our momentaneous concept is not the final one, but nevertheless some general comparisons can be made:
We therefore think that Beeosensor could provide a way of testing every beehive without increasing the environmental impact drastically and the increase would definitely less drastically then with a gapless monitoring via the lab method.
Current method
The microbiological method requires the collection of a sample by the beekeepers in a plastic cup. The cup is then sent to the laboratory, where the sample is plated onto special agar-plates which are bought ready-to-use in plastic petri dishes. The incubation is done over several days on 37°C and after that the plates need to be autoclaved and discarded. This requires a fully equipped microbiological lab.Beeosensor system
Our current method requires the production and use of the measuring device. Probably several beekeepers will use one device, as the test doesn’t have to be performed more often than one or two times a year. The electrodes are reusable, but need to be prepared each time with the phages. Therefore a routine production of phages is necessary. A microbiological lab is required too, but the production can be optimized and scaled up. Other methods are imaginable, such as the production of the phages in a cell-free system, which is heavily researched lately, e.g. by Munich 2018.We therefore think that Beeosensor could provide a way of testing every beehive without increasing the environmental impact drastically and the increase would definitely less drastically then with a gapless monitoring via the lab method.