Caring for honey bees in general practice

Kaitlyn Krebs, DVM, MBA, DABVP (Canine/Feline) discusses honey bee care in general practice and how veterinarians can get started with providing this service, in an interview with dvm360 at the 2024 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Convention in Austin, Texas. She also will be presenting lectures at the convention with topics on Sunday, June 23, 2024, that include "Introduction to Bee Biology," "Bee Health and Common Diseases," and "A Veterinarian's Role in Bee Health and How to Get Started."

Krebs is an associate professor in clinical primary care at the University of Pennsylvania's Ryan Veterinary Hospital in Philadelphia. Additionally, she created a teaching apiary at the university's New Bolton Center animal hospital in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

The following is a transcript of the video:

Kaitlyn Krebs, DVM, MBA, DABVP (Canine/Feline): General practitioners can absolutely care for bees, and they have to be the ones that are caring for them. And it's really interesting because people think of bees as production animals, but in my experience, most of the veterinarians that are taking care of the bees are actually small animal practitioners. And that's not to say that large animal practitioners don't [care for bees] as well. But, as veterinarians, we have a responsibility to the bees. And I think that encompasses both large and small animal veterinarians.

There's not a whole lot of research out there. And we don't really learn about bee medicine in veterinary school. So, things like continuing education, lectures at some of these big conferences, there's webinars and resources available online. The AVMA has a great handbook for veterinarians who are looking to get into honey bees and there's the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium as well that provides a ton of resources for veterinary practitioners. But there's a ton of other resources out there as well. And even though we don't learn about them in vet school, it is important to have some knowledge about them before working with them.

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