About Me
PhD Graduate
I successfully defended my PhD thesis at the University of Manitoba in fall 2022 and graduated in February 2023.
I returned back home to Nova Scotia in April 2020, after several years in Winnipeg, and currently live in Dartmouth.
I completed my BScH in Biology (2010) and MSc in Biology (2014) at Acadia University. I joined the Currie Lab at the University of Manitoba in 2014. I’ve enjoyed working in small and large labs, and am comfortable both in a leading role and working within a team.
My research has focused on honey bee health and ecology since 2009.
Research Interests:
Animal Health, Ecology, Parasites, Pesticides & Pathogens
Research Projects
BScH Research
Acadia University
Nosema ceranae and Undertaking Behaviour
European honey bees live in enclosed colonies at high densities with closely genetically related individuals in constant high temperatures and humidity, making disease prevention a necessity. Undertakers are a specialist group of honey bee workers that remove dead bees from the hive (necrophoresis), presumably to restrict the spread of pathogens. Nosema ceranae is an emerging fungal parasite of the European honey bee, and is a serious threat to hive health. The first objective of this study was to test if undertakers distinguished among corpses with different intensities of Nosema- infection. The second objective was to test if undertakers treated corpses consistently in consecutive removals from colonies. Dead bee traps (2 m x 1 m) were used to collect corpses that had been uniquely marked with paint or string. I recorded distances at which corpses were dropped from a hive (drop distance), redeployed them in a second hive, and again recorded drop distances. N. ceranae infection intensity was quantified in recovered corpses. There was no significant correlation between drop distance and N. ceranae intensity. There was also no significant relationship between the initial and subsequent drop distance of corpses experimentally re-introduced to hives. These results suggest that necrophoresis is not pathogen-driven. However, observations suggest a new hypothesis that drop distance depends on how corpses are carried and whether they get tangled with undertakers. This could be investigated by studying how undertakers grasp corpses, how undertakers drop corpses, and how undertakers become tangled with corpses.
MSc Research
Acadia University
Nutrition and Pesticide Content of Honey Bee-Collected Pollen in the Maritime Provinces
Honey bees are important commercial pollinators that have suffered greater than normal overwintering losses since 2007 in North America and Europe. Contributing factors likely include a combination of parasites, pesticides, and poor nutrition. We examined diet diversity, diet nutritional quality, and pesticides in honey bee‐collected pollen from commercial colonies in the Canadian Maritime Provinces in spring and summer 2011. We sampled pollen collected by honey bees at colonies in four site types: apple orchards, blueberry fields, cranberry bogs, and fallow fields. Proportion of honey bee‐collected pollen from crop versus noncrop flowers was high in apple, very low in blueberry, and low in cranberry sites. Pollen nutritional value tended to be relatively good from apple and cranberry sites and poor from blueberry and fallow sites. Floral surveys ranked, from highest to lowest in diversity, fallow, cranberry, apple, and blueberry sites. Pesticide diversity in honey bee‐collected pollen was high from apple and blueberry sites and low from cranberry and fallow sites. Four different neonicotinoid pesticides were detected, but neither these nor any other pesticides were at or above LD50 levels. Pollen hazard quotients were highest in apple and blueberry sites and lowest in fallow sites. Pollen hazard quotients were also negatively correlated with the number of flower taxa detected in surveys. Results reveal differences among site types in diet diversity, diet quality, and pesticide exposure that are informative for improving honey bee and land agro‐ecosystem management.
PhD Research
University of Manitoba
Role of Comb Wax and Inquilines in Honey Bee Virus Transmission
Honey bees are an integral element of modern agriculture in Canada and worldwide. However, there have been increased winterlosses of honey bee colonies for more than a decade. These losses are due to multiple factors, and include damage from a near universal parasite, Varroa destructor, and the negative effects of honey bee viruses, some of which are vectored by varroa mites. It is vital to understand honey bee virus transmission in order to mitigate damage caused by infections. There is a dearth of research into wax comb as a potential transmission route of honey bee viruses. I developed a method to detect viruses directly from wax, and used that to explore waxborne viruses, focusing on the most common viruses in Canada: black queen cell virus (BQCV), deformed wing virus (DWV), and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV). I discovered bee viruses in Braula coeca for the first time and showed levels were similar to those in varroa despite vastly different life histories and interactions with comb. My results show that viruses were on winterloss wax. A cage study showed that worker bees easily contaminated wax through contact by walking on comb, in proportion to their own infection levels. I demonstrated that viruses could aerosolize within an incubator, though airborne transmission between adults is unlikely. I determined that both storage time and e-beam irradiation were able to reduce waxborne viruses, but temperature had no effect. Moreover, 35 and 45 kGy irradiation were more effective at virus reduction than time alone. My key result is that worker virus levels were increased when reared on high virus inoculated wax in a large-scale field experiment. Surprisingly, viruses were higher in adults reared on irradiated versus control wax. In summation, I found that wax does play a role in honey bee virus epidemiology and that wax is a viable route of honey bee virus transmission.
