Massachusetts Beekeepers Association: Annual Spring Conference

Dr. Cameron Jack and Dr. Sarah Wood will be featured at this year’s Spring Meeting. Also providing updates will be Dr. Kim Skyrm, MDAR’s Chief Apiary Inspector and Hannah Whitehead from UMass Extension.

This is a great opportunity to “see” these outstanding speakers without having to travel!

Dr. Cameron Jack obtained his Master’s degree at Oregon State University where he conducted research on the honey bee gut pathogen Nosema ceranae. He received a Ph.D. at the University of Florida under the mentorship of Dr. Jamie Ellis where he began investigating methods to control the devastating pest Varroa destructor. In 2018, Cameron was hired on as a teaching faculty at the UofF’s Entomology and Nematology Department. In the past three years, he has been obsessed with creating a premier educational program that prepares students for the many challenges associated with beekeeping. Cameron’s main research interests are focused on honey bee epidemiology and toxicology. Most recently his projects have involved studying the efficacies of different chemical treatments to Varroa in field trials. Notably, his work on oxalic acid vaporization has been of interest to beekeepers around the world. He is also involved in a large-scale collaborative project screening a wide variety of untested chemicals for their toxicity towards Varroa and their effect on honey bees. His presentation will be on his research on the oxalic acid treatment on Varroa destructor.

Dr. Sarah Wood is  a veterinary pathologist and honey bee researcher, and hobbyist beekeeper from Saskatchewan, Canada. She is a secondgeneration veterinarian. She obtained her DVM in 2012 from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. After two years in private practice, she returned to WCVM to pursue graduate training in anatomic pathology in the Department of Veterinary Pathology and is close to completing her PhD. Her research interests include European foulbrood disease and pesticide ecotoxicology in honey bees. Her presentation is on her research on European foulbrood (EFB).