On Saturday 29^th January, over 180 beekeepers, bee scientists, bee inspectors and bee farmers gathered at the University of Worcester to hear experts from around the world present their latest research on Varroa. Although the majority of the delegates were from England and Wales, there was a great representation from Ireland, as well as Holland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Australia.

In all there were 7 presentations covering the following topics:

Varroa Biology : Dr Stephen Martin

Varroa and viruses : Dr Joachim de Miranda

Chemical control of Varroa : Dr Max Watkins.

Integrated Pest Management in Varroa : Prof. Keith Delaplane

Biological control of Varroa : Dr David Chandler, Dr Judy Pell

Breeding honey bees for Varroa tolerance : Norman Carreck

Varroa - the way forward : Dr Jochen Plugfelder

All the presentations were of an excellent standard and delegates were seen writing pages of notes as valuable information was disseminated throughout the day. Overall the event was deemed as a great success with those attending leaving Worcester with their heads full of information and arms full of books from the IBRA bookstand!  

All our members will be able to read a more extensive report of the conference along with the results of the ‘feedback' questionnaire which will be published in the next issue of Bee World (due in March 2011). Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to the questionnaire, we are grateful for your feedback. 

If you were unable to attend and feel you have missed out, don't despair! At the end of April we are publishing all the papers in a book titled "Varroa - Still a problem in the 21^st Century". This will be available from the IBRA bookshop for £13.50*.

Details will be published on the IBRA web site.

*includes  p&p U.K. only.