Baton Rouge Bee Lab Director Retires

USDA News Release

ABJ-Extra_Feb4-2016_Rinderer
Dr. Thomas Rinderer has retired as director of the Baton Rouge Bee Lab.

Dr. Thomas E. Rinderer, Supervisory Research Geneticist, retired on Jan. 2, 2016, after a research career of 40+ years. He has been in his assignment as Research Leader of the Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, since 1977.

Dr. Rinderer’s research has resulted in 312 publications (246 in refereed journals), countless abstracts of papers presented at scientific meetings, 7 supervised theses/dissertations and research grants exceeding $2 million. His range of research topics has included genetics, breeding, behavior, morphology, pathology and toxicology. The range of organisms studied has included several species of honey bees, several species of mites parasitic on honey bees, several diseases of honey bees and two pests of bee hives.

Dr. Rinderer is recognized nationally and internationally as an expert in honey bee biology, genetics and breeding. He has served as senior editor of the Journal of Apicultural Research and the journal Bee Science, has served as a reviewer for numerous other journals, and has served on international, federal, state and industry research panels evaluating funding for research grants. He is an adjunct professor of entomology at Louisiana State University.

A primary focus of the research has been the improvement of honey bees through genetic selection. Most recently, Dr. Rinderer discovered a stock of honey bees in far-eastern Russia, imported it through an APHIS-approved quarantine which he established, and documented it’s resistance to the parasitic mite V. destructor.  The level of resistance was sufficiently high that the need for mite control treatments was reduced by more than half. Continued selection in multi-state field trials through 12 years, using breeding methods developed specifically for this project, has produced a Russian honey bee stock having consistently improved resistance to V. destructor such that colonies rarely require chemical treatment to suppress V. destructor, has maintained resistance to the tracheal mite A. woodi, and has increased honey production to commercially acceptable standards.

Technology transfer efforts encouraged 18 commercial honey bee breeders in 2008 to form the “Russian Honeybee Breeders Assoc. Inc.”  All lines of the Russian honey bee stock have been transferred to members of the association who are now maintaining and selecting the stock using techniques and procedures obtained from extensive technology transfer efforts by Dr. Rinderer and his team.  In addition to developing Russian honey bees into a stock with excellent beekeeping functionality, Dr. Rinderer has been actively involved in the planning, development and execution of honey bee breeding programs to produce stocks of honey bees that have improved Varroa sensitive hygienic behavior and improved resistance to Nosema ceranae and Deformed Wing Virus.

Dr. Rinderer’s research accomplishments not only have gained him widespread international and national scientific recognition but also a universal recognition from the beekeeping industry of the nation.  On a number of occasions the beekeeping industry has expressed their gratitude to Dr. Rinderer for his contributions and delivered strong support to the program of the laboratory that he leads.  Through the years, Dr. Rinderer has engaged in cooperative research with individual beekeepers as a way to leverage research resources and build strong relations with the beekeeping industry.