B-THENET Webinar on VMP accessibility in Beekeeping

Within the B-THENET (BEST PRACTICES AND INNOVATIONS FOR A SUSTAINABLE BEEKEEPING) project, BeeLife in close collaboration with ROMAPIS held in July 7 the webinar Accessibility to Veterinary Medicinal Products (VMPs) in beekeeping in the EU.

This B-THENET webinar was held as a hybrid event in collaboration with the Nature and Apiculture weekend organised by the Romanian Federation of Beekeepers (ROMAPIS), who provided English-Romanian translation. Around sixty participants from all over Europe engaged in the webinar, while twenty-two participants met in person in Bucharest (Romania) at the Veterinary University. Participants included beekeepers, academia, public authorities, medicinal product distribution and veterinarians.

The programme included a presentation by the authorities of the European regulatory framework. It was followed by presentations of the crystallisation of such European framework in four different countries with different field realities: countries in which beekeeping is mainly a hobbyist occupation but with different importance at the national level (Belgium and Slovenia), and countries in which beekeeping is professionalised and has a large volume of participants (Romania and Spain). Finally, two companies commercialising VMPs for beekeeping presented their views and difficulties when introducing their products into the market.

The presentations served to identify two main limitations hampering the accessibility of beekeepers to VMPs to treat varroosis: the lack of economic interest by industry provided the small scale of the sector and the use of illegal products or formulations. These two issues served as topics for two brainstorming sessions on improving the situation.

The recording of the presentations is now available as well as the report summarising the key takeaways from the presentations and the discussion.