Why veterinarians still feel unprepared for honey bee medicine
Bottom line
Veterinarians are being asked to play a bigger role in honey bee health, but many still don't feel ready for it. That’s the core issue highlighted in AVMA’s Veterinary Vertex episode with Dr. Melinda Wilkins, which points to a mismatch between federal oversight responsibilities and veterinary training. Since January 1, 2017, FDA rules have required veterinary oversight for medically important antibiotics used in honey bees because bees are classified as food-producing animals and their hive products enter the human food chain. Yet honey bee medicine remains outside the core curriculum at many veterinary schools, even as new CE offerings and certification pathways have started to emerge. (fda.gov)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this is less about an unusual species niche and more about regulatory responsibility, antimicrobial stewardship, and food-system health. Vets who work with food animals, mixed practice, public health, or rural communities may increasingly encounter beekeepers who need a valid veterinary-client-patient relationship, prescribing guidance, or help navigating diseases such as American foulbrood. The gap is significant enough that the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium says most veterinarians in the U.S. and Canada have not been trained in honey bee veterinary medicine, and AVMA has responded with targeted CE on bee medicine, hive exams, VCPR, and practice startup basics. (fda.gov)
What to watch: Expect more pressure on veterinary education and CE providers to make honey bee medicine easier to access as regulatory oversight, pollinator health concerns, and beekeeper demand continue to converge. (hbvc.org)
Honey bee medicine is moving from the margins of veterinary practice toward the mainstream, but the profession’s training pipeline still hasn’t caught up. In AVMA’s Veterinary Vertex episode, Dr. Melinda Wilkins argues that once honey bees are recognized as food-producing animals, the conversation changes: veterinarians are no longer peripheral to bee health, they’re part of the regulatory and stewardship framework. That shift has been building since the FDA’s antibiotic oversight changes took effect on January 1, 2017. (fda.gov)
The policy backdrop matters. FDA classifies honey bees as food-producing animals because people consume hive products, and it requires veterinary oversight for medically important antibiotics administered in the food or water of food-producing animals. For bees, that chiefly affects oxytetracycline, tylosin tartrate, and lincomycin hydrochloride used to control American foulbrood. Before 2017, beekeepers could access those products over the counter; afterward, they needed a licensed veterinarian’s order or supervision. (fda.gov)
That regulatory change pulled veterinarians and beekeepers into the same lane, but education has lagged. A 2021 JAVMA paper on honey bees as a teaching tool in veterinary education said the VFD era highlighted the need for greater literacy in honey bee health. More recently, a 2026 JAVMA report led by Wilkins identified lack of knowledge, education, skills, and training as the most commonly cited challenge for practitioners considering adding honey bee medicine to practice. Taken together, those publications suggest this isn’t just anecdotal discomfort, but a persistent workforce-development problem. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
The profession has started building infrastructure around that gap. AVMA now offers bee-focused continuing education, including modules on why honey bees need a veterinarian and how to get started in bee medicine, with content covering hive exams, VCPR, treatment decisions, and business considerations. Outside AVMA, the Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium was formed to connect veterinarians and beekeepers and says its mission includes expanding the number of veterinarians willing and able to work with bees. Its certification pathway requires 150 continuing education credits across husbandry, disease, diagnostics, clinical experience, One Health, and regulatory topics. (axon.avma.org)
There are also signs that some academic programs are treating bee medicine as a strategic growth area. The University of Georgia says it was the first veterinary school in the nation to integrate honeybee medicine into its curriculum and describes its program as preparing graduates to handle apiary visits with the same confidence as other animal care calls. That doesn’t mean the broader profession is there yet, but it does show one model for closing the training gap through hands-on exposure rather than elective-only awareness. (give.uga.edu)
Industry and expert reaction has centered less on novelty and more on practicality. The Honey Bee Veterinary Consortium explicitly frames the problem as one of insufficient training, while bee-focused veterinary educators such as Dr. Chris Cripps have been drawn into CE efforts that teach veterinarians the biology, diseases, treatment options, and prescribing responsibilities tied to honey bee care. The emerging message is that veterinarians don’t need to become commercial beekeepers, but they do need enough species-specific competence to make sound clinical and regulatory decisions. (hbvc.org)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, honey bee medicine sits at the intersection of food animal practice, antimicrobial stewardship, public health, and rural service. Bees may not fit neatly into the companion animal workflow many clinicians were trained for, but the legal and professional obligations are real when medically important antibiotics are involved. This creates both risk and opportunity: risk for practitioners who are asked to oversee treatment without adequate preparation, and opportunity for practices, educators, and organized veterinary medicine to build capacity in an underserved area tied directly to agriculture and the food supply. (fda.gov)
What to watch: The next phase will likely be measured by whether bee medicine moves from niche CE into more routine veterinary training, whether more practitioners pursue certification or listing through HBVC, and whether demand from beekeepers pushes more mixed and food animal veterinarians to establish bee-related services. If Wilkins’ findings gain traction, the pressure will be on schools, CE providers, and professional groups to turn awareness into a workable workforce pipeline. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)