Yes. Dr. Guarna is spending her time on a couple of studies, but one she's particularly taking the lead on is looking at the quality of queens being imported into Canada. The Canadian honeybee industry is very dependent on importing large volumes of queens, particularly from the U.S., and one of the consistent reasons cited by beekeepers in terms of concerns for the colony losses has been the quality of queens, their longevity, and their performance. She's looking at factors associated with the transport of queens and how this may affect the viability of sperm within them.
Honeybee queens are mated in flight to many drones, and we find, by actually destructively analyzing many queens, that the per cent of sperm that is viable inside them is sometimes quite low. We know this affects colony performance, so she's trying to look at factors about why that may occur in certain instances. It may be temperature extremes in shipment. It may also be related to the hive environment they're reared in and perhaps to exposure to pesticides within them.
Certainly, Dr. Guarna is helping with a few projects, but that is one in particular that she's taking the lead on.