Prof. Robert Paxton: Breeding our way to varroa-free beekeeping

There are growing numbers of initiatives to breed honey bees that can survive without the need to treat colonies with chemicals that control varroa mites. Robert will explore some of these initiatives, then go on to present an alternative initiative within the Better-B project, which relies on Darwinian (natural) selection, and to which he contributes. Prof. Robert Paxton has spent his academic career studying bees. In 2010, he moved to the University of Halle (Germany), to take up a chair in zoology. His main research areas are: social evolution, host-parasite relations, pollination and conservation genetics. Bees remain at the core of his studies.