![\"Jim](\"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/forwisconsin\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2014\/11\/uwstout_hives_burrittjim1-with-hives-300x210.jpg\")
<\/a>The problem, known as hive winter kill, is threatening the honeybee industry and possibly even the species itself.<\/p>\n
But what exactly is the problem? That\u2019s where Burritt, the biologist by day, is trying to help.<\/p>\n
He and several students in UW-Stout\u2019s applied science program have conducted a groundbreaking bee cell study that is receiving international attention. The two-year project, \u201cHoney Bee Hemocyte Profiling by Flow Cytometry,\u201d was published Monday, Oct. 6, by the international journal PLOS ONE. The research can be found online at www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0108486<\/a>.<\/p>\n Recent UW-Stout graduate Will Marringa was the primary student researcher and serves as lead author for the article.<\/p>\n PLOS One<\/em> is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication for science and medicine research, according to its website, www.plosone.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Burritt has developed a process by which the immune cells of honeybees can be analyzed and classified. He believes the research provides scientists a new approach in the fight to help honeybees.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re developing a tool with which healthy or diseased honeybees can be better identified and possibly understood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Studying bees\u2019 \u2018blood\u2019 cells<\/strong><\/p>\n White blood cell analysis is a common tool for studying human health. Burritt is using the same approach with honeybees, whose blood equivalent is hemolymph.<\/p>\n In a lab at UW-Stout\u2019s Jarvis Hall, Burritt, students and lab assistants have been withdrawing tiny amounts of hemolymph \u2014 two-millionths of a liter \u2014 from chilled bees.<\/p>\n The bees examined in the study were obtained mostly from Burritt\u2019s hives, though several other area beekeepers also provided bees.<\/p>\n Hemolymph is placed in a flow cytometer, which counts, measures and classifies each bee\u2019s cell types, stopping when it has examined 5,000 cells.<\/p>\n Within the hemolymph are the bees\u2019 defense cells, hemocytes.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time we have pictures and profiles of hemocytes of honeybees. We actually get a lot of information from a single bee. It\u2019s never been studied in this way before.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe it\u2019s a new way of looking at honeybee health, but we don\u2019t know enough yet to know if it will solve the problem, if it can be solved,\u201d Burritt said.<\/p>\n The cell profiles generated by the flow cytometer, surprisingly, are very different from one bee to another and from one hive to another \u201clikely representing changing conditions or metabolic needs of colony members. But we will need more researchers to help decipher their meaning,\u201d Burritt said.<\/p>\n The die-off of honeybees in the Upper Midwest could be related to infection from non-native Varroa destructor mites, along with other mites and infectious agents. Varroa mites are \u201cextremely successful parasites and transmit viruses like crazy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Student assists with research<\/strong><\/p>\n Marringa, who graduated in the spring with an applied science degree and emphasis in biotechnology, began working with Burritt on the study in 2012.<\/p>\n Initially they were screening bees for deformed wing virus, but upon realizing most bees were infected they switched their focus to how bees were fighting infection.<\/p>\n \u201cThis method could allow scientists to eventually diagnose the pathology of honeybee colonies based on common patterns in immune cell populations,\u201d said Marringa, who added that the study has caught the attention of other universities interested in the approach.<\/p>\n Burritt and Marringa worked with the Dunn County Beekeepers, www.dunncountybeekeepers.org<\/a>, while developing their study. Marringa presented their research in January at the American Beekeepers Federation Conference in Baton Rouge, La.<\/p>\n Since graduating, Marringa, of Waupaca, has enrolled in a medical laboratory science training program in Aurora, Colo. He learned many research skills while working with Burritt, he said, and also fell in love with beekeeping.<\/p>\n \u201cThis research taught me how to operate as an individual researcher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Burritt\u2019s training is in immunology, working mostly with white blood cells from humans and mice. He has published 37 professional articles and teaches classes at UW-Stout on general microbiology and infectious disease.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>