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  • WHERE I WORK

‘If I drop this, I’ll kill the queen’: how I launched a veterinary practice for bees

Elizabeth Hilborn is among just a handful of people in the United States who are medically trained to treat honey bees.
  1. Fern Reiss

    1. Fern Reiss helps writers publish books at FernReiss.com in Boston, and writes articles for HuffPost, Newsweek and Smithsonian.

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Elizabeth Hilborn wearing a beekeeping suit and inspecting a brood frame from a hive

Elizabeth Hilborn runs Bee Well Mobile Veterinary Services in Kenly, North Carolina. Credit: Kate Medley for Nature

I had always wanted to be a veterinarian. I earned my vet degree at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Raleigh and am certified in veterinary preventive medicine. For more than 25 years I’ve worked as an environmental health scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where I examine the effects of pollution on human and animal health.

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Nature 621, 888 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03001-w

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