The EURL for Bee Health held its 16th annual workshop in Bologna (Italy)

The EURL for Bee Health held its 16th annual workshop on 11th September 2026 in Bologna (Italy), following the EurBee conference. About forty participants attended, representing the NRLs of almost all EU Member States as well as of Norway and Switzerland. All participants were happy to gather, and the informal discussions were rich and lively.

 

The participants had the pleasure to listen to two presentations of NRLs' activities and the current honey bee health status in Portugal by Patrícia PEREIRA LOPES (new head of the Portuguese NRL) and in France by Stéphanie FRANCO (head of the French NRL).

 

Emilia SEMBERG (representative of the Swedish NRL) and Lotta KRISTIANSEN FABRICIUS (researcher at SLU Competence Centre for advisory services) shared the difficulties encountered with atypical cases of European foulbrood in Sweden.

 

This year, a focus was put on exotic pests. In the first session dedicated to Tropilaelaps spp., Cecilia COSTA (researcher at CREA-AA, Italy) presented the development of detection methods of Tropilaelaps mercedesae in Georgia. Then Marc SCHAEFER (head of the German NRL) and Michael OPITZ (representative of the Austrian NRL) presented the draft of the guidelines for Tropilaelaps surveillance, currently being developed by the EURL in collaboration with the representatives of five NRLs (Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain), and discussed it with the participants. During the second session, Franco MUTINELLI (head of the Italian NRL) presented the surveillance of Aethina tumida in Italy, while Margot CAMOIN (Bee Health Division of GDS Réunion) presented the management of this pest in La Réunion island (France).

 

The workshop ended with the presentation of the EURL activities during the last period and the work perspectives for 2027.

 

We warmly thank all the speakers for their interesting presentations and all the contributors for the fruitful discussions. Many thanks also to the whole team of the EURL and Sophia Antipolis laboratory for their commitment in the preparation and organisation of this event.

 

Documents and presentations of the workshop can be found here for the NRL network.