The following excerpt is from an article which recently appeared in a "Nature" publication, giving it a high level of visibility:
Honeybee declines are a serious threat to global agricultural security and productivity. Although multiple factors contribute to these declines, parasites are a key driver. Disease problems in honeybees have intensified in recent years, despite increasing attention to addressing them. Here we argue that we must focus on the principles of disease ecology and evolution to understand disease dynamics, assess the severity of disease threats, and control these threats via honeybee management. We cover the ecological context of honeybee disease, including both host and parasite factors driving current transmission dynamics, and then discuss evolutionary dynamics including how beekeeping management practices may drive selection for more virulent parasites. We then outline how ecological and evolutionary principles can guide disease mitigation in honeybees, including several practical management suggestions for addressing short- and long-term disease dynamics and consequences.
Management trade-offs.
We cannot understate that all of these management suggestions are most difficult to implement in those systems that have the most to gain from them. Integrating these biology-based practices into commercial-scale migratory beekeeping requires translational research to identify specific actions that are practical and profitable. It will require the work of social scientists and educators to modify human behaviours.
Ecological and evolutionary approaches to managing honeybee disease
Berry J. Brosi, Keith S. Delaplane, Michael Boots3 and Jacobus C. de Roode
Nature Ecology & Evolution | VOL 1 | 1250 SEPTEMBER 2017
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"Translational research" is a term borrowed from the medical profession. This may help to explain what is meant by it:
> New medical knowledge will lead to new therapeutics, diagnostics, and prevention strategies ... When new knowledge is generated, we must have an integrated system with a much greater capacity to disseminate it, along with ways of fostering behavioral changes in patients, the public, and physicians themselves, all based on research.
> I’ve also broadened the concept of translational to encompass health outcomes and epidemiologic research: correlate science with the art of medical practice; encourage scientific investigation; and disseminate this science among the members.
Laurence, Jeffrey. "Translating translational research." Translational Research 148.1 (2006): 1-3.
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What this boils down to is moving from research to practice. Otherwise, research is not practical and the techniques in the field are not based upon the latest science. It simply isn't useful to keep saying that research can't be translated into best management practices. How to get people to adopt new techniques, is another matter. There have to be incentives of some sort.
PLB
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