The 47th edition of the Apimondia International Apicultural Congress took place from 24-28 August 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey. For the first time, three major symposia have been organised with the participation of world-recognised specialists speaking about the most relevant themes in apiculture. This year, the congress was organised in hybrid format, by livestreaming scientific sessions in the virtual platform.

Apimondia is the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations. Its main objective is to facilitate the exchange of information and discussions by organising Congresses and Symposia where scientific, technical, ecological, social, and economic apicultural development are promoted. The biennial International Apicultural Congresses is the biggest beekeeping event, where beekeepers, scientists, honey traders, agents for development, technicians, and legislators meet to listen, discuss and learn from one another. 

Photo: Apimondia at the Istanbul Congress Centre

The 5-day-long event offered a scientific program full of activities and panels, covering a wide range of topics of interest to researchers and beekeepers alike, including apitherapy, bee health, beekeeping technology, etc. The hybrid conference environment proved to be efficient in facilitating dialogues and allowed the participation of a new category of virtual registrants in aspects of the Congress. 

The conference covered a broad spectrum of beekeeping and apicultural sciences, including state-of-the-art lectures, plenary sessions, various symposia, and the ApiExpo. The Istanbul Congress strived to be a showcase of worldwide advancements in the science of apiculture. Emphasis was also placed on presentations and discussions of topics that are of high prominence in the beekeeping community or that challenge the concepts of modern beekeeping through a roundtable. The poster sessions, offering lively interaction between presenters and participants, were divided into 7 thematic sections, some of which were beekeeping economy, beekeeping for rural development, beekeeping technology and quality, etc. 

Photo: A symposium during Apimondia 2022

As a key project on healthy and sustainable beekeeping, B-GOOD was also represented at the congress. B-GOOD’s coordinator Prof. Dirk de Graaf (Ghent University) opened the Bee Health session on day 2 with a short overview of the project. Referring to the ‘nature-based beekeeping’, the central theme of one of the major symposiums, he positioned the project within advanced technology-based beekeeping. Although this terminology has not been used to describe B-GOOD before, it expresses well what it stands for. The dynamic landscape models and EFSA's ApisRAM model of a bee colony used for the determination of the Health Status Index fall, indeed, within the advanced technology. So does the use of numerous sensors for automatic data collection. Dirk ended the session with a lecture on the LAMP technology for virus detection in eggs without the need for sophisticated equipment. This tool was developed on the sidelines of the B-GOOD project.

On the morning of day 3, Work Package 1 leader Dr. Coby van Dooremalen (Wageningen Research) gave an invited lecture as a keynote speaker in the major symposium on Climate Change. To improve honeybee resilience and optimise their chances in an environment with climatic changes and sometimes high pathogen loads, we first need to better understand what coping mechanisms they have and how stress impacts performance. In her talk, she shed light on how to improve biological resilience to climate and pathogens, while introducing some of the B-GOOD outcomes. 

Photo (In order from the left): Coby van Dooremalen, Dirk de Graaf, Etienne Bruneau

 

Read more about the 47th Apimondia International Apicultural Congress here.