A team of scientists from the Agricultural Re-search Service demonstrated that the antibiotic tylosin was safe and effective in controlling the American foulbrood disease of honeybees, and their technology transfer efforts resulted in Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval and commercialization of tylosin to control this devastating bacterial disease.In addition to producing a unique food prod-uct—honey—the honeybee is our most impor-tant agricultural pollinator. The commercial production of more than 90 crops, including almond, apple, citrus, blueberry and squash, as well as numerous seed crops, is accomplished through bee pollination. Crop growers rent more than two million honeybee colonies every year to assist with the pollination of crops with an added market value exceeding $15 billion.American foulbrood disease is a highly contagious disease of young honeybee larvae caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. Only one antibi-otic was approved for the treatment of foulbrood disease and, in recent years, widespread bacterial resistance across the United States put all of our country’s nearly three million bee colonies at risk. The team initiated, designed and conducted research to identify a suitable antibiotic alterna-tive, and coordinated the research with scientists from the FDA to ensure that their efforts would satisfy the stringent standards set by the FDA for antibiotic approval in a food-producing animal. The scope and quality of the team’s research was such that on August 3, 2004, the FDA published “Tylosin Tartrate for Foulbrood in Honeybees: Availability of Data” in the Federal Register (Vol. 69, No. 148). The team then collaborated with the Regulatory Affairs division of Elanco Animal Health, which resulted in the submission of a New Animal Drug Application (NADA). On October 20, 2005, the FDA approved Tylan® Soluble for the control of American foulbrood disease in honeybees. While the value of the honeybee colonies protected from this disease can be modestly estimated at about $1 billion, the impact of this technology transfer effort is far broader and wider ranging. From apples in Washington to blueberries in Michigan and Maine to Florida citrus and nu-merous other fruit, vegetable and seed crops, the team’s effort has contributed to protecting a $15 billion industry based on honeybee pollina-tion and to maintaining the vitality of American agriculture