1
|
van Dooremalen C, Ulgezen ZN, Dall’Olio R, Godeau U, Duan X, Sousa JP, Schäfer MO, Beaurepaire A, van Gennip P, Schoonman M, Flener C, Matthijs S, Claeys Boúúaert D, Verbeke W, Freshley D, Valkenburg DJ, van den Bosch T, Schaafsma F, Peters J, Xu M, Le Conte Y, Alaux C, Dalmon A, Paxton RJ, Tehel A, Streicher T, Dezmirean DS, Giurgiu AI, Topping CJ, Williams JH, Capela N, Lopes S, Alves F, Alves J, Bica J, Simões S, Alves da Silva A, Castro S, Loureiro J, Horčičková E, Bencsik M, McVeigh A, Kumar T, Moro A, van Delden A, Ziółkowska E, Filipiak M, Mikołajczyk Ł, Leufgen K, De Smet L, de Graaf DC. Bridging the Gap between Field Experiments and Machine Learning: The EC H2020 B-GOOD Project as a Case Study towards Automated Predictive Health Monitoring of Honey Bee Colonies. Insects 2024; 15:76. [PMID: 38276825 PMCID: PMC10816039 DOI: 10.3390/insects15010076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2023] [Revised: 01/05/2024] [Accepted: 01/20/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
Honey bee colonies have great societal and economic importance. The main challenge that beekeepers face is keeping bee colonies healthy under ever-changing environmental conditions. In the past two decades, beekeepers that manage colonies of Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) have become increasingly concerned by the presence of parasites and pathogens affecting the bees, the reduction in pollen and nectar availability, and the colonies' exposure to pesticides, among others. Hence, beekeepers need to know the health condition of their colonies and how to keep them alive and thriving, which creates a need for a new holistic data collection method to harmonize the flow of information from various sources that can be linked at the colony level for different health determinants, such as bee colony, environmental, socioeconomic, and genetic statuses. For this purpose, we have developed and implemented the B-GOOD (Giving Beekeeping Guidance by computational-assisted Decision Making) project as a case study to categorize the colony's health condition and find a Health Status Index (HSI). Using a 3-tier setup guided by work plans and standardized protocols, we have collected data from inside the colonies (amount of brood, disease load, honey harvest, etc.) and from their environment (floral resource availability). Most of the project's data was automatically collected by the BEEP Base Sensor System. This continuous stream of data served as the basis to determine and validate an algorithm to calculate the HSI using machine learning. In this article, we share our insights on this holistic methodology and also highlight the importance of using a standardized data language to increase the compatibility between different current and future studies. We argue that the combined management of big data will be an essential building block in the development of targeted guidance for beekeepers and for the future of sustainable beekeeping.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Zeynep N. Ulgezen
- Wageningen University & Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | | | - Ugoline Godeau
- Institut National de la Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, 84914 Avignon, France
| | | | - José Paulo Sousa
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Marc O. Schäfer
- Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Bundesforschunginstitut für Tiergesundheit, 17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany
| | | | - Pim van Gennip
- Stichting BEEP, 3972 LK Driebergen-Rijsenburg, The Netherlands
| | | | - Claude Flener
- Suomen Mehiläishoitajain Liitto, 00130 Helsinki, Finland
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Famke Schaafsma
- Wageningen University & Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Jeroen Peters
- Wageningen University & Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Mang Xu
- Wageningen University & Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Yves Le Conte
- Institut National de la Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, 84914 Avignon, France
| | - Cedric Alaux
- Institut National de la Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, 84914 Avignon, France
| | - Anne Dalmon
- Institut National de la Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, 84914 Avignon, France
| | - Robert J. Paxton
- Martin-Luther-Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany
| | - Anja Tehel
- Martin-Luther-Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany
| | - Tabea Streicher
- Martin-Luther-Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg, 06120 Halle, Germany
| | - Daniel S. Dezmirean
- Universitatea de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara Cluj Napoca, 400372 Cluj Napoca, Romania
| | - Alexandru I. Giurgiu
- Universitatea de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara Cluj Napoca, 400372 Cluj Napoca, Romania
| | | | | | - Nuno Capela
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Sara Lopes
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Fátima Alves
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Joana Alves
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - João Bica
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Sandra Simões
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - António Alves da Silva
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Sílvia Castro
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - João Loureiro
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Eva Horčičková
- Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, TERRA Associated Laboratory, University of Coimbra, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Martin Bencsik
- The Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
| | - Adam McVeigh
- The Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
| | - Tarun Kumar
- The Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
| | - Arrigo Moro
- Institute of Bee Health, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|