Laura’s fieldwork is underway!

This spring Laura Avila, a postdoc in our lab and Nicole Gerardo’s lab, is doing fieldwork to study the impact of agricultural antibiotics on honey bee and wild bee microbiome composition. Her research will also explore the presence of pathogenic bacteria and abundance of antibiotic resistant genes in these bee populations. Laura is conducting her fieldwork in apple orchards around Georgia and other areas in the Southeast. Her work is possible thanks to multiple collaborators at the University of Georgia and funding from the Eva Crane Trust, the Southern Integrated Pest Management Center, the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, and the Eastern Apicultural Society. Stay tuned for more about Laura’s bee microbiome work!