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A new vaccine will protect honeybees from a bacterial disease affecting their larvae

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

There will be a new vaccine on the market, but not for humans. Last week, the Department of Agriculture conditionally approved the first vaccine for honeybees. It fights against a bacterial infection called American foulbrood.

CHRIS HIATT: It'll kill the hive. The brood, the new bees, they will - you'll have a snotty, disgusting larva come out. It won't be - you will not hatch out new bees.

RASCOE: That's Chris Hiatt, president of the American Honey Producers Association. Along with his brothers, Hiatt runs 19,000 hives. Their bees pollinate almond farms. They also took part in the vaccine trials, which were run by a biotech company called Dalan Animal Health.

HIATT: I think I had 800 hives with vaccinated queens. And so far, so good. It's early, early stages, but, yeah.

RASCOE: So I hear you. How do you vaccinate a bee? Do you have tiny little needles? No. The vaccine is put into a sugar candy that the queen bee eats. Queens love candy, if you didn't know that already, and the immunity is passed along to her developing offspring. And the vaccine isn't genetically modified. It contains a little of the dead bacterium.

HIATT: It's a more natural way to control the foulbrood. And we can have healthier hives without using antibiotics, which is harder on the bees.

RASCOE: Honeybees are critical. They pollinate all kinds of crops - passion fruit, squash, blueberries - plus plants grown for spices and medicine. But their numbers have been declining because of disease and climate change. Hiatt said he was very excited about what the new vaccine means for keeping bees alive.

HIATT: I just think the potential for, you know, solving, hopefully, other diseases - maybe we get in the varroa mite or viruses or anything. You know, we're still averaging 40% of the hives dying in the United States every winter. And so hopefully this will continue us down the road.

RASCOE: That was the president of the American Honey Producers Association, Chris Hiatt. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.