Honey Bee Fast Response System for Broad Band Detection of Airborne Toxicants.

This project's objective is to develop honey bee colonies as broad band, wide area detectors of airborne toxicants. Phase I focused on identifying behavioral endpoints that assess the locomotor and task solving performance of 'exposed' foragers returning to the hive. Preliminary results indicate that speed of maze navigation and recognition of 'exposed' foragers by entrance guard bees hold promise for meeting USACEHR's specifications (SBIR A03-160) for real-time, fast response, air toxicity monitoring. In June 2004, we expect to accomplish a two-week demonstration of honey bee biomonitor response within 30 minutes to 1-3 chemicals of military relevance, with minimal false alarms. Upon successful completion of this objective before our Phase I contract ends in July, for Phase II we propose to quantify the receiver operating characteristics (probability of detection) of selected behavioral metrics to classes of chemicals, establish dose-response curves, address potential interferrents such as weather or deliberate countermeasure, and prototype a marketable, fully integrated, hive-mounted, multi-sensor system integrated with our existing (patent pending) electronic hives. This platform will allow integration of new sensor technologies, such as chip-based biomarkers/bioinformatics systems, as they become available. The honey bee fast response sensor system (HBFRS) should have extensive military, security, and civilian applications.