Dalan Animal Health – Vaccine Updates & Breakthrough Discoveries (329)

329 - Dalan Animal Health – Vaccine Updates & Breakthrough Discoveries

Mary Blisenski: Hi. My name is Mary Blisenski. I'm from Paso Robles, California. I have been a beekeeper for three years now. I enjoy your podcast that I listen to every Monday. I always learn something new. Thank you for all that you teach me. Welcome to Beekeeping Today's Podcast.

Jeff Ott: Welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast presented by Betterbee, your source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment. I'm Jeff Ott.

Becky Masterman: I'm Becky Masterman.

Global Patties: Today's episode is brought to you by the bee nutrition superheroes at Global Patties, family-operated and buzzing with passion, Global Patties crafts protein-packed patties that'll turn your hives into powerhouse production. Picture this, strong colonies, booming brooded, and honey flowing like a sweet river.

It's super protein for your bees and they'll love it. Check out their buffet of patties, tailor-made for your bees in your specific area. Head over to www.globalpatties.com and give your bees the nutrition they deserve.

Jeff: Hey, a quick shout-out to Betterbee and all of our sponsors whose support allows us to bring you this podcast each week without resorting to a fee-based subscription. We don't want that, and we know you don't either. Be sure to check out all of our content on the website.

There, you can read up on all of our guests, read our blog on the various aspects and observations about beekeeping, search for, download, and listen to over 300 past episodes, read episode transcripts, leave comments and feedback on each episode, and check on podcast specials from our sponsors. You can find it all at www.beekeepingtoday.com.

Hey everybody, welcome to this show. Mary Blisenski, thank you for that wonderful opening. Becky, she's the first beekeeper from California to do an opening for us.

Becky: I love that. I love that. Mary, I love that you're a fan of the show. I love that you're a fan of, I think it's last week's guest, Scott Debnam. Really excited that you're talking to us and that you did an opening for us.

Jeff: Paso Robles, California, it's a pretty area. Becky, today's episode's going to be fun. We have Dalan Animal Health. We've had him on a couple times before, back in January of '23, we had Keith Delaplane on. He was running some of the field trials for the vaccine, American Foulbrood AFB vaccine. Then last June we had representatives of Dalan on. This is about the third time we're talking about this vaccine, which I think is a pretty big development for bees.

Becky: It's exciting because it is now out there for everybody to see and buy. When people are buying queens, which they're doing right now, they definitely have a choice with a lot of different providers that they can get a vaccinated queen if they'd like to. They're our sponsors, which is very nice. We've really looked to them to get this information about this amazing technology. I love the fact that they're sponsoring us. I think we should say right up front that we don't get free queens, do we?

Jeff: Hey, wait a minute. No, we do not get free queens for having them on the show. In fact, of course, for our long-time listeners know that we don't accept any of the products that we talk about on the show just to maintain a fairness, but to provide the information from these innovators and companies about their products and beekeepers can make their own mind whether it works in their operation or not.

Becky: I've been a fan of this information from before the company started because I remember when the AFB vaccination paper was published and how it was such a novel, exciting find in science. The fact that it was scientists working on a project in the lab and it's moved to a piece of technology that can help beekeepers in their hives, that's a pretty cool transition in their colonies. I love the fact that this research has come all the way to the marketplace. I'm really excited to hear an update on what's going on.

Jeff: This year we're hearing more talk about the, perhaps additional benefits of the vaccine in preventing other viruses such as deformed wing virus. I look forward to talking to them about that as well.

Becky: I'm interested to hear the science behind it. If anybody knows, the immune system is still a little bit of a mystery, I think, especially in this case with vaccinations.

Jeff: With honeybees and people. No. I know that they're out in a green room and they're getting prepped by our makeup artists. No, I'm just kidding. They're out in the green room. They are out there waiting. Let's let Amy and Everett in. Folks, we'll be right back right after these words from our sponsors.

[music]

Betterbee: Time to upgrade your beekeeping gear? Betterbee suits and jackets are built for comfort, safety, and durability because we know what beekeepers need. Thumb loops keep sleeves in place. An adjustable waistband gives you a secure fit, and there's plenty of pocket space for your tools or foam.

Plus, whether it's a cool spring morning or the heat of summer, you'll stay comfortable with regular, partially ventilated, and fully ventilated options. Get your Betterbee suit or jacket today at betterbee.com.

[music]

[00:00:00] Dalan Animal Health: It's been a tough year for bees. Colony losses are averaging 62%, making disease prevention more important than ever. That's why we're excited to share a game-changing solution from Dalan Animal Health. Now available through retailers across the US and Canada. Dalan has developed the industry's first-ever vaccinated queens, designed to protect your hives against brood disease.

In the field, these queens have helped reduce deformed wing virus by up to 90%. By introducing young vaccinated queens each year, you are giving your bees a stronger immune system and broad protection against both viral and bacterial threats. Join the 30,000 hives already benefiting from vaccinated queens. Protect your colonies this spring. Find a retailer at dalananimalhealth.com and get started today.

Jeff: Hey everybody, welcome back. I'm really excited sitting across this great big virtual Beekeeping TodayPodcast interview table stretched across the country. We're going to have to ask where everybody is. First, we have Amy Floyd. She's head of beekeeper relations for Dalan or Dalan Animal Health. Also sitting virtually next to Amy is Everett Hendrixon, sales manager for Dalan Animal Health. Amy, Everett, welcome to the Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Amy Floyd: Thanks for having us.

Becky: We're so glad you're both here. Thank you.

Jeff: We've known about the vaccine that Dalan's been working on for a couple years now. First, as we mentioned earlier before when we talked to Dr. Keith Delaplane of the University of Georgia a couple years ago, and then last year we talked with Annette and Tim Ferris. Again, we're looking forward to hearing the latest updates and news, what's going on with the vaccine, and how it's being accepted in the industry.

Becky: Amy, you've got quite a beekeeping resume. Do you want to share a little bit about who you were before you ended up at Dalan?

Amy: Sure. It was all a happy accident. I got my bachelor's degree in Wildlife Conservation and Management at the University of Arizona. I wanted a little bit more lab experience before I went into grad school or the workforce. The Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, that's a USDA ARS lab in Tucson, was hiring minions for lack of a better word, undergrads to do stuff. It was a great opportunity to just learn how they use those lab techniques too, to do science.

Even though they studied honeybees, which are more of an agricultural domestic animal now, it's the same technique. I was like, "I'll get my experience and then I'll move on with my life and work with the bees for a year and it'll be a good story to tell." Then I never left. They were just fascinating. Every day I was learning something new. I could not get myself to leave.

I graduated with my bachelor's degree, and my supervisor was like, "You can stay as long as you want." I stayed for a year. It was only going to be another year. Then he offered for me to get my master's degree. I just fell in love with the bees and the whole industry. I found it fascinating that there was this entire industry that almost no one else in my life knew about.

Anyways, I ended up working at the USDA lab in Tucson for about five and a half years. I got my master's degree from the University of Arizona, but doing my research at that lab, mostly studying European foulbrood. Then my government appointments end, unfortunately. That was coming to an end at that location. I transferred to the Davis USDA lab, which was a brand new lab that tried to open during COVID.

They got held back. When I started there, we were really starting to get going finally in 2021. I worked with Julia Fine there. We did queen toxicology type of stuff. I managed a lot of their hives. Meanwhile, both at the Tucson lab and the Davis lab, I was doing work with the vaccine as a contractor. Annette and Dalia were just getting going on the license. They needed some blinded trials done. I was running those. Then as the vaccine was getting ready to go to market, they were building their team for Dalan. I joined full-time in March of 2022. In the meantime, I have my own bee operation that is quite small. That's Honey Wagon Apiaries, which is named because at the time that I started, I lived in a van and was traveling full time and working.

Anyways, so Honey Wagon used to be quite small just in Tucson. Now I call myself the smallest migratory beekeeper in the west because I moved my hives between Tucson and Flagstaff so I get two nectar flows and they never have to deal with 100-plus degrees in Tucson. They get to be in Flagstaff, which is a mountain town in northern Arizona. They're over winter here and they do great. Just my whole life has turned into bees.

Becky: Excellent.

Jeff: That's fun. We'll have to have you back sometime to talk about keeping bees in the Tucson area in Arizona. That's a challenging area, I'm sure.

Amy: Yes, it is. Luckily it's where I learned to beekeep, so I don't know. I didn't know any different, but now when I've visited all over the country now and I'm like, "Wow, you guys can just let your guys requeen and lots fewer issues in other areas.

Jeff: Very cool. Everett, what about yourself? Are you a beekeeper as well?

Everett Hendrixon: I am not. I'll tell you just briefly how I came to bees. I have worked on thousands of hives. At one time in my career, I had a landscape company. I'm like the landscaper that has a landscape company, but the landscape at home is abysmal. I started in agriculture roughly 15 to 20 years ago. I was raised in a manufacturing company.

My dad had a manufacturing company. Went to school for law. I got out of that realizing that I was not going to be successful there and went into business management. Then after my landscape gig, I got an agriculture gig down in Florida with a tomato farm. From that point, the bug was bit. I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

It basically just revolves around being in agriculture, especially food production, small fruit and veg. Cut my teeth on tomatoes, branched out into smaller fruits, blueberries, strawberries, some sunflower work, and almonds. That introduced me into a company that was at the time doing fungicide. They were using bees to carry fungicide to the bloom, a biological that was, obviously, non-lethal, non-harmful for bees.

While I was trepidatious about that project, it was exhilarating and fun. Did a lot of work with bumblebees and honeybees in that gig, which then qualified me to talk to Dalan about what we can do for the beekeepers in the vaccine. That's how I got into bees in a nutshell. I really see that this agricultural need to feed people comes in my blood.

It's on my mom's side of the family. My dad's likes to fix things and be a mechanic. I like to grow things. Knowing that bees results in every third bite of food that we eat and knowing that food supply chain and food security is absolutely essential to have these pollinators working on our behalf, at least in the modern agricultural community that we have at the moment, I realize there's nowhere else I'd rather be. Dalan was gracious enough to bring me on the team. It's been a wild ride ever since.

Jeff: For our listeners who may be at their first year beekeeping or maybe their second and they may not know much about a bee vaccine, someone describe that to us, or is it really like shots in the six legs of the bee? What's being done here? Describe the bee vaccine.

Amy: Vaccinating a bee does not involve a needle. The vaccine comes in liquid form in a vial, but that liquid is mixed into queen candy and is consumed orally by workers. It moves through the workers' system into their hypopharyngeal glands, and then they feed it to the queen. The queen transfers those particles via vitellogenin, which is an egg yolk protein that moves that information into her ovaries and into the egg yolk.

It exposes the larvae to that information before they hatch. When they hatch and they're exposed to the world, they have that information that something is dangerous. It's called transgenerational immune priming. We're moving from one generation to the next and we're priming their immune system via exposure to the bacterial particles.

Jeff: That's always a weird approach to vaccine as people or humans, in dealing with mammals, we're used to-- You get inoculated, you get a vaccine, whether it's a shot or a sugar pill or whatever, and then that person is immune to that disease, but this process is a little bit different.

Amy: It's similar. It is very different than what our concept of vaccines. You vaccinate your dog to protect your dog. The example I try to give to help explain is mothers breastfeeding their infants. There's a lot of immune information in that breast milk from the mom that's going to the baby in order to protect them because if they were to encounter those things in the wild to build their own immune system, they might die from it.

Instead, that mother is able to transmit immune information that way. It's not exactly the same, obviously, but it is similar of that generational sharing of information to help get them over that hump before they can safely interact with the world.

Jeff: I like that analogy. It's effective.

Amy: It's not perfect, but it's the close enough for most people.

Jeff: It's an illustration. Illustrations aren't detailed schematics. It's good. I like it. Is the queen protected? Queen, it wouldn't matter, right? Silly question.

Amy: Yes. Queen larva--

Becky: That's a trick question.

Jeff: What's that?

Becky: I said that was a trick question.

Jeff: Yes, that's what I meant. That's what I meant.

Amy: Queen larva would be protected. Daughter queens from a vaccinated queen would be protected as she's developing. The question we get a ton is if daughter queens are considered also vaccinated and can pass it along, which is not true, unfortunately.

It'd be very nice if you could vaccinate a breeder queen and then all of her daughters were vaccinated, but we're not genetically modifying anything. We're not genetically modifying the queen at all. It's just an exposure method. A little bit of a tangent off of your comment, but we get that question a lot.

Jeff: Oh, certainly. Just to clarify, because this is an important point, if you have an inoculated queen and you raise queens from that inoculated queen, the bees that the inoculated queen raises or the second queen would not be inoculated.

Amy: Each queen needs to be vaccinated in order for her to be able to pass it on to her offspring.

Jeff: How has the reception been on the inoculated queens? This is the first full year? We're coming up on one full year of the vaccine being available?

Everett: Coming up on two, but the first year we were still in a lot of field trials and USDA replicated studies, whatnot. We really went to market with a concerted effort about a year and three or four months ago. That's how long we've been pursuing the industry so to speak. The industry's reaction, as you can imagine coming out of a pandemic with all of the different information sources flying, the initial reaction to the word vaccine was not positive.

In the efforts that we've been through over the last few months, we've come around and most folks understand this is a safe natural pathway that already exists in the queen. We're not altering anything. We are looking for negative side effects. It's been seven or eight years and we haven't found any. We're still looking. We want to know what the long-term effects would be, if any.

Our regulators want to know the same thing, which has also led us to find some of these positive things, which brings us to talk to you about some of the new updates because as you know, when you talk to Annette and Tim, it was primarily focused on American foulbrood, which was the second hurdle in industry acceptance because the industry simply just didn't have that American foulbrood problem.

Antibiotics are widely used. They're easily accessible. Canada, not as much. We found a pretty warm reception in Canada to this technology. Overall, what we've seen, especially in the last 12 months, is a shift. Especially with the losses that we've seen in the industry over the last few months, the focus of bee health is much more renewed than it was beforehand. We obviously are at the charge and leading the charge when it comes to preventative bee health.

Jeff: How does it work against American foulbrood?

Everett: As Amy was explaining, and maybe it's best that she interject back again, but it is passing on that coded information to the offspring to understand what it is, recognize it. In the larvae, it protects the larvae. That's where American foulbrood is most susceptible to the hive. Not to the queen or to the active workers, but to those at larvae, so they understand what the bacteria is, they understand how to fight it, and therefore it doesn't infect the hive because that's a good explanation, Amy.

Amy: This is how a hive would normally communicate that information. That presence of disease is a generation of workers tells the queen through food, "Hey, this is present in our hive." If they were infected with American foulbrood, those spores would be in their food. They'd be feeding that food to the queen, and then the queen, that vitellogenin.

That's its job, is to connect to these things and then pass that information along. It's normal. That's how they share information between generations anyway. If they were naturally infected with American foulbrood, they'd be sharing that information in this same pathway. When they had sporeloads to that extent, that have would probably be close to death anyway.

Those larvae are protected, but maybe aren't going to survive anyway. That hive's going to pass. This is just a way to preemptively get that information in there so that if they are exposed to it, it protects them. American foulbrood, like Everett said, is a brood disease, and it's really hard to treat.

There's constantly first in star larvae in a hive during the peak season. It's hard to treat foulbrood diseases in a meaningful way. This is effective in getting to each individual before they are exposed, instead of having to constantly treat for something.

Jeff: Just to restate what you said, this is if you had a colony that had American foulbrood, and if you ran down to the local store and got your inoculated queen and put it in that colony, that's not going to cure American foulbrood in that colony. This is not a treatment for an active case of American foulbrood.

Amy: I would never recommend doing that. American foulbrood's nasty. You don't want it to get out of control. There's potential that adding a vaccinated queen may help reduce it, but we're not killing spores. We're not getting rid of it. We're just priming their immune systems to fight it if they are exposed to it. Those larvae may be able to survive it.

If you are already seeing symptoms in your hive of American foulbrood, those spores reproduce to the billions so fast that it's really not quite worth it. What would be a good use of vaccinated queens in that scenario is vaccinating hives nearby to prevent a clinical outbreak.

Jeff: American foulbrood is not something to play with. Let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. We'll come back and we'll talk about some of the new developments and some of the things that you've been working on post American foulbrood. We'll be right back.

Bee Smart Design: Spring is almost here. Give your bees the best start with the Bee Smart universal insulated hive system, designed to reduce losses, support brood building, and boost honey yields. It helps maintain the perfect nest temperature and humidity all with no extra work from you at the heart of the system. An insulated cover, insulated inner cover, IPM bottom board, and direct feeder managing moisture and letting your bees feed right from the nest with up to 70% more insulation than poly hives. It keeps colonies warm and winter, cool in summer, and thriving all year long.

Bee Smart products fit eight-frame and 10-frame equipment, need no assembly or painting, and are built to last, right here in the USA, using recycled materials. Ready to upgrade? Visit beesmartdesigns.com. Click where to buy and order from your favorite dealer today. Bee Smart Designs, simply better beekeeping equipment.

[music

[00:23:53] StrongMicrobials: Strong Microbials presents an exciting new product, SuperFuel, the probiotic fondant that serves as nectar on-demand for our honeybees. SuperFuel is powered by three remarkable bacteria known as bacilli, supporting bees in breaking down complex substances for easy digestion and nutrient absorption. This special energy source provides all the essential amino acids, nutrients, polyphenols, and bioflavonoids just like natural flower nectar, vital for the bee's nutrition and overall health.

SuperFuel is the optimal feed for dearth periods over winter survival or whenever supplemental feeding is needed. A big plus is the patties do not get hive beetle larvae, so it offers all bioavailable nutrients without any waste. Visit strongmicrobials.com now to discover more about SuperFuel and get your probiotic fondant today.

Becky: Welcome back, everybody. AFB is such a serious disease. As you mentioned, Everett, one of the things is that some of us don't see it, or it's very rare because it's in control. I remember with my first conversation with Annette, she talked about how there were projects looking at EFB, and then also potentially deformed wing virus.

Then it skipped over, and I'm simplifying it, and Amy, you're going to have to break this down for us, but the data we're showing you that the bees were protected for deformed wing virus even when the vaccination was actually for AFB.

Here's my big question. One, are you still working on new vaccines for different diseases, including EFB, because I think a lot of us are concerned about that. Then two, just go ahead and tell us what's going on with the deformed wing virus protection. How's that? Then just take it away, Amy, you've got a half an hour

Amy: It's a big question. Interject if I forget something or anything. I'll start with EFB. There is potential for an EFB vaccine to be made. The pathway would be similar. There's a lot of regulatory things that make it hard for something new like that to just come out. European foulbrood, that bacteria, Melissococcus plutonius, has multiple types and is very regionally specific.

It's a little bit more complicated of a disease to make a vaccine that would work widespread for. That work is going to take a little while. We are working and looking at maybe if there's cross protection with the AFB vaccine for European foulbrood, that's still being worked on this season. I don't have anything magical to say about that. We're working on it. It is possible.

Becky: That's good to hear.

Amy: As for the deformed wing virus, we have to run studies in the field for our license and for regulatory purposes. In that, we started just looking at everything disease load in general of these hives. We started to see multiple times that deformed wing virus had been reduced in vaccinated groups. We saw it in a few different ways.

We had a Georgia location that had both groups vaccinated in control, started with really high levels of deformed wing virus bee in April, May. Then by September, the vaccinated group had dropped, and the control group still had a very high deformed wing virus bee.

Then on the other side of the country, in California, we ran a trial where the hives started with very low levels of deformed wing virus bee, both groups. Then by August, the vaccinated group had very little deformed wing virus bee, and the control group had gotten out of control, was very, very high levels of deformed wing virus bee.

We have two different scenarios where we've seen it bring it down, and then we've also seen it prevent it from getting out of control, which I, as a scientist, just think is so cool and is very interesting. We've had a few other locations show very similar trends over the last year. It's very promising.

Everett: Just to back the bus up just a little bit, when we did these field trials that she's talking about, and that is under license, that we need to do these to prove that we're not doing any harm, we also want to see what's going on because we were seeing benefits in these hives that didn't have AFB.

At the time before we understood clearly the data, we were under the assumption that, because we do know that AFB exists in a hive and most 50% of the hives, those studies have been done in the US and Canada for some years at just subclinical levels.

By cleaning up EFB, the hive is on a better foot or a better wing, I should say, to keep disease at bay and produce a bit more honey, to have better brood and more brood, and the faster ramp up, the different benefits to these hives. Not until this study came back with extremely surprising data, because seeing how a bacterial vaccine can suppress a virus is mind-blowing.

That led us down a different path. Now, with the different cross protections that she talked about that we're looking into with other viruses and other things, and we have some other studies that are in motion right now in Canada that preliminarily show the same effects of the AFB in field challenges as was seen in the lab.

That led to less chalk brood and sac brood in those hives. Now, is that direct causation of the vaccine? It's thought not to be, it's more of a correlation to a healthier hive, like we talked about before. We're taking some of these viruses and bacteria off the table, suppressing them and letting the beehives function at a higher level, then they naturally take care of some other diseases on their own. That's the exciting part of what we've seen.

The deformed wing virus suppression levels that we've seen, I use suppression, I know Amy, flip a coin, we can use different words, but that level is not correlated. It's causation because it's at 90%, between 83% and 93% in replicated trials. That's pretty phenomenal. We're happy to see that and happy that this has a good reason for being a beneficiary to the hive beyond AFB.

Becky: I have to ask, were you monitoring varroa levels in those deformed wing virus studies, and were they the same in the control and the treatment groups?

Amy: I believe in the Georgia study we had looked at mite levels and there wasn't a difference between the two. They weren't taken at the exact same time as the samples were taken that were submitted for a deforming wing, so it's not perfect. It was not perfectly done, but it does not seem to matter what the mite load was.

These trials, we don't have enough manpower to run hundreds and hundreds of hives on our own. These trials are done in collaboration with commercial beekeepers, and we ask them to treat these hives as they normally would completely. Feed them, treat for mites, do what you normally would. We asked them to not use antibiotics but otherwise, they were managing them as they normally would, and everything was treated the same. I do believe those mite levels were relatively similar between groups.

Everett: That's what the official report that you can find online says, that this despite mite load, that does not mean that we advocate for not treating mites. There is a theory that has been posited, like if you go to Alberta, the transfer tech system out there put out a survey, and they showed with pretty sufficient data, that at 1% mite, you have a high risk of death. At 3% mite, it's certainty. There's no margin for error there.

When the mites first came on the scene, there was a margin of errors. Guys could run with 8 to 10 and still run effective apiaries with a 1% to 3% margin. That's tough. Might a solution like this increase that margin a bit? That's the hopeful expectation. Does that mean that we ignore mite treatments? By no means. We need to continue to successfully treat for mites.

Becky: They were in the same apiaries, correct? The control and the treatments?

Amy: Yes. Each apiary had half and half. In California, everything was in one yard. In Georgia, there were eight separate yards. Each yard showed the same reduction individually and then also obviously as a group. Each yard, yes, was half-vaccinated, half-controlled.

Amy: Are you working with anybody in a university setting to get these data out or replicated, and peer-reviewed, and out and published, because it's so interesting and exciting and my guess is that your capacity is only yay big.

Everett: We do have some universities involved. We have one in Canada. A well-known professor up there, Dr. Pernell, is working on his studies, and his findings won't be out probably until this time next year, potentially. It's a long trial. It's an 18-month trial. What we find in a lot of university and the challenges that we come up with there is their capacity.

You talk about our capacity. Their apiaries aren't hundreds and hundreds of hives. The initial field study that was done regarding the deformed wing virus was a 400 hive study. It typically doesn't happen on the university level. For the investments involved, and the universities are interested we do try to collaborate where we can. We've had interesting conversations with quite a few over the last few months.

We're just trying to formulate how to put something together. When it comes to lab challenges and other things with regulatory processes and whatnot, there are other universities involved, but they're abroad, they're not here in the States.

Amy: We have submitted the Georgia deformed wing virus study, which was the initial finding of the deformed wing virus reduction. That's been submitted for peer review into a journal that I can't remember the name of at the moment.

Again, like you said, it would be great to have a third party revalidate those findings because if we publish our own paper and our own findings, it's a little less credible than a third party. We do want to share that information. We do want data to be out there. It's super interesting just from a science point of view that a bacterial method is helping with a virus.

Becky: It's game-changing. It's absolutely game-changing for a livestock industry that doesn't have enough vaccines. It doesn't have enough research in the area. That's why I asked because Dalan has been extremely collaborative from the get-go, and its history is such a nice blend of research science and then collaborating with commercial beekeepers.

It's exciting that it's gotten to this point so quickly, actually. Then to have found this out, it's just a really neat next chapter. It's something that it could only help beekeepers if it's understood better. It's really exciting. Anyway I'll stop talking. I'm done now, actually. I just wanted that update. I'm really happy.

Everett: There's a larger point to what you're talking about, Becky, and that is when going back to Jeff's question about industry response. In the last six months, we've seen the industry really come to our side and say, "Thanks for doing what you're doing." I may not want AFB protection, but you've spent all this money, you've spent all this time, very few companies do this. We are a startup, and we're not run by big brother.

This was three sisters, three researchers, that founded this group on the basis of healthy animals, healthy planet, and putting bees first, and the people who take care of them. In that vein, getting attention put onto this creature that provides for a third of our food supply is massive. To set the pattern and to have others follow in our footsteps, man, that's a source of pride.

Becky: I've always told beekeepers when they've asked about it. Even if you're not worried about AFB and the colony, supporting a company that's actually supporting the health of the bee in this novel way it's just vital. If it might not be a personal concern, it's something they could do just to support your business. With the deformed wing virus data, that's a game changer because we're all worried about that. Show me somebody who isn't worried about it who has bees.

Amy: That's pretty much a constant in the industry, is worrying about might load and viral load. It is very exciting. It's been really fun to be a part of it from the get-go and watch it grow and evolve. Like Everett said, the industry, they're a little hesitant. It's a very different way to approach disease management at the queen level rather than the hive level, which is what has been ingrained in us.

There's a little bit of a learning curve and accepting something new, but I think the sentiment overall is maybe things do need to change. Maybe we do need to try different options and manage things a little bit differently. Slowly but surely, as I train beekeepers, I'll I go onsite and I'll train especially queen producers how to do it at a larger scale.

Every time I finish the training, "Oh, this is way easier than we thought. This is simple. This is easy." I think it just takes time where the industry, I think has been set in their ways for a while, and bringing in a new innovative option can throw some of them off. They're excited that someone's working on something.

Becky: There are a lot of just regional beekeepers who are trying to start to control their queen stock. It would be really interesting if they went ahead and took that extra step and started using the vaccine.

Everett: We've seen that. We have some in the Ohio Valley, a queen breeder association that is doing just that. They're collectively working with the vaccine as a group. We'd love to see that. In the industry, the phase that the industry is in, regional pollination might be where we end back up and not these massive cross-country pools in pollination. If that's the case, regional queen production is going to be a key to success.

Jeff: That said, you still have the adoption of vaccinated queens in the industry from a queen breeder. You have, I think I saw nine-ish queen breeders listed on your website. We talked to Ray Alvarez several weeks ago. He's providing vaccinated queens.

It is taking foothold in the industry which I think is wonderful. I'm considering buying some queens this spring, and I'm thinking, yes, I'll do the vacc-- I don't know what the price difference is. I'm sure there is one. I think for the protection of my bees and the success of my yard through the season, why the heck not? It makes all the sense in the world. Especially this last several days ago, I was doing a quick spring inspection and there was a queen there that I found. I saw the queen and she had a shriveled wing and it's like, "Heck." That wasn't quite my word, but I was--

Becky: Wait, the queen did.

Everett: Caged version.

Becky: We're going to have to get back to that.

Jeff: I'm sorry.

Becky: The queen was or you saw a worker.

Jeff: No, queen had a shriveled wing. I'll send you a picture.

Becky: Was she able to fly?

Jeff: No, she was not able to fly. She was trying to.

Amy: I heard from a few queen producers last year, they were seeing queens with deformed wing virus rather than just the workers with deformed wing virus, which I think we don't really think about. Deformed wing virus can be transmitted horizontally and vertically, so worker to worker or queen to worker and through the environment. It's very interesting.

I think there's a lot to learn about that virus in general. Just in all of the viruses, I think we don't really know. I listened to the episode from a few weeks ago with the-- Now I can't remember her name, in Montana about viruses. There's just so much to learn.

Becky: At this point, you're marketing a vaccination for AFB, what needs to change in order for you to add that protection for deformed wing virus?

Everett: That requires a label extension. We're in the process of that. We have a label extension application that needs some revisions. We're working on that. It's regulatory.

Becky: It should be really easy, right?

Everett: Works through the government than they did before, then works fast. I would say for us to say this is this and this is that, it does require that label extension.

Jeff: It's good because we couldn't even really talk about it last year. There was a great hesitancy to really even infer that there was those additional benefits. I'm glad that even though it's not on a label, and you're obviously doing the required research to state this, I'm glad that we can get the information out to beekeepers that they have this option to work with and see if it makes a difference in their yard.

I am looking forward to using vaccinated queens in my own yards this spring and this year as I make splits or something. I'm glad that you were able to join us today to give us some more information. I look forward to having you both back down the road as we learn more about what Dalan Animal Health is doing and how that can benefit beekeepers worldwide, actually.

Everett: I appreciate the opportunity. It'll be a pleasure to revisit.

Becky: Thank you for both of you for joining us and giving us all of these great updates as far as what's going on with your company.

Amy: It's been fun to share.

Jeff: Hey, Becky, just hold on just one minute. I am hanging up the phone with the queen breeder and ordering my queens that are vaccinated.

Becky: You could do that online, Jeff. I did it during the episode. You know that time I got really quiet.

Jeff: I wondered what was going on. I am trying to stretch this phone cord across the floor. Dialing them up.

Becky: Rotary dial.

Jeff: Rotary dial. This is a great conversation with Dalan about the vaccinated queens. I think it's a breakthrough technology. I think that bees will benefit.

Becky: It's always been exciting that they're putting in the work. I don't think everybody in our industry knows just how tiny we are as far as the livestock industry. We don't have the support that other bigger industries do. For them to see the technology, see the value in it, invest in it, and really work just tirelessly to make it happen, I'm appreciative definitely.

Jeff: That about wraps it up for this episode. Before we go, I want to encourage our listeners to follow us and rate us five stars on Apple Podcast or wherever you download and stream the show. Even better, write a review and let other beekeepers looking for a new podcast know what you like.

You can get there directly from our website by clicking on the reviews tab along the top of any webpage. We want to thank Betterbee and our regular longtime sponsors, Global Patties, Strong Microbials, and Northern Bee Books for their generous support.

Finally, and most importantly, we want to thank you, the Beekeeping Today Podcast listener for joining us on this show. Feel free to leave us questions and comments on our website. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks a lot, everybody.

[00:45:15] [END OF AUDIO]