Wildlife

Bee Vaccine

The US Department of Agriculture has approved the first-ever vaccine to prevent a deadly bacterial disease that can destroy honeybee colonies. The new vaccine for American foulbrood in honeybees will stop the microbe from infecting the pollinators. The disease is currently battled by incinerating bees and infected hives or by treating them with a mixture of antibiotics in their food.

The new product, licensed to Diamond Animal Health, is mixed into “queen feed,” which worker bees consume to create royal jelly that they feed to the queen bee. Her larvae will then be born immune to the disease.

Right Whale Recovery

Marine mammal researchers say they now have hope for the recovery of endangered North Atlantic right whales after the birth of nine calves in the first weeks of the breeding season. Moira Brown of the Canadian Whale Institute told Canadian Press that fewer than 100 of the surviving right whales are mothers, and the new babies are a hopeful sign for the future.

She says that there were only 15 calves born last year, compared to the average of 24 since the early 2000s. Some of the perils faced by the species are ship strikes, entanglements in fishing gear and other debris and dwindling food supplies due to warming North Atlantic waters, which could also be affecting whale breeding.