The bee informed partnership: Using beekeeper's real-world experience to solve beekeepers' real-world problems

he Bee Informed Partnership (BIP) received a 5-year Coordinated Ag-riculture Project (CAP) grant from the National Institute of Food and Agri-culture (NIFA) to use an epidemiological approach to identify risk factors associated with honey bee colony losses. An epide-‹‘Ž‘‰‹ ƒŽƒ’’”‘ƒ Š‹†‡–‹Ћ‡•ˆƒ –‘”•that contribute to disease occurrence in a population, advocates for and promotes ways to reduce exposure to risk factors, and seeks to reduce disease incidence at the population level.Epidemiological studies concentrate on understanding the cause(s) of any particular disease or etiology at the population (rather than the individual) level. Epidemiologically, †‹•‡ƒ•‡‹–•‡Žˆ ƒ„‡†‡Ћ‡†„”‘ƒ†Ž›ƒ•ƒ›departure from perfect health. Factors that epidemiologists consider determinants of disease may be biotic (e.g., pathogens) and/or abiotic (e.g., pesticides). The epidemiolo-gist aims to identify ways to minimize expo-sure to risk factors by encouraging changes in host behavior that mitigate disease in a population.Managed honey bee (