Honeybee good

Apple growers across the UK should be aware of the important role played by honey bees in their orchards and take steps to protect this vital pollinator.
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21st century bee health

For the estimated 19 major pest and disease threats to UK honeybee populations, CSL now offers a near complete suite of diagnostic assays.
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Colony Loss

Experts at CSL’s National Bee Unit (NBU) are working to investigate incidents of significant colony loss.   


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National Bee Unit


Mission and objectives

The National Bee Unit delivers the Bee Health Programmes on behalf of Defra and the National Assembly (NAW) in England & Wales. Our function is to protect the honeybee, an essential pollinator of crops and wild plants, from threats such as serious disease and environmental damage. We do this using an integrated programme of apiary inspections, diagnosis, research and development, training and extension provided by a team of bee scientists and experienced practical beekeepers. We provide specialist advice and technical consultancy services on bee health to government departments, beekeepers and industry.

Download the NBU Brochure.

The aim of the Unit's programme is to assist industry to become more self sufficient in dealing with endemic diseases and pests, allowing government resources to be deployed more effectively towards dealing with emerging exotic threats, and the development of necessary contingencies, that are presented by increasing global trade coupled with climate change.

Science themes

  • Strategic planning to combat potential exotic pest and disease threats and changing status of endemic diseases
  • Laboratory diagnosis of suspect diseases and development of new diagnostic methods
  • Inspections of honeybee colonies for statutory bee diseases
  • Research and development to underpin bee health work
  • Formal Import Risk Analysis in support of Import Policy
  • Statutory Honey sample collection for residue analysis on behalf of Defra VMD
  • Closer integration with industry through CSL Bee Health Advisory Panel
  • Beekeeper training and extension programmes, including consultancy and training on behalf of overseas governments

For more information on the National Bee Unit please visit BeeBase. The Beebase website holds data on all inspections made by the staff of the NBU and provides information on legislation, pests and diseases, current research areas and much more.

Team members