On Mar. 19, 2024, scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)ﾒs Agricultural Research Service (ARS) announced they had developed an edible antiviral treatment that can be used to protect honey bees against Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) and other viruses, according to a study published in Sustainable Agriculture.

The researchers filed a patent application for the technology and plan to use variations of it to target additional bee viruses and other pathogens in future studies.