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U.S. BEE COLONIES DECIMATED BY MYSTERIOUS AILMENT
By Jon Hurdle
Reuters
February 12, 2007

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12390157.htm

PHILADELPHIA - A mysterious disease is killing off U.S. honeybees,
threatening to disrupt pollination of a range of crops and costing
beekeepers hundreds of thousands of dollars, industry experts said on
Monday.

Beekeepers in 22 states have reported losses of up to 80 percent of their
colonies in recent weeks, leaving many unable to rent the bees to farmers of
crops such as almonds and, later in the year, apples and blueberries.

"It's unusual in terms of the widespread distribution and severity," said
Jerry Bromenshenk, a professor at the University of Montana at Missoula and
chief executive of Bee Alert Technology, a company monitoring the problem.

Dave Hackenberg, a Pennsylvania beekeeper who reported the so-called Colony
Collapse Disorder to researchers at Pennsylvania State University in
November, said he had lost about 2,000 hives, which can each contain around
50,000 bees during the summer months.

He estimated that he will lose as much as $350,000 after accounting for lost
income and the cost of replacing bees.

Researchers from state and federal agriculture agencies have been frustrated
in their search for a cause because affected hives are often empty except
for the queen and a few bees.

The number of bees in a hive typically diminishes over a period of days to
the point where there are very few or none left, Hackenberg said. There is
no indication of where the bees have gone or what drove them away, he said.

"The rate of loss is startling," said Jeff Pettis, a bee researcher at the
U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland.

Pettis said the bees may have been killed off by a combination of factors
including parasitic mites and a lack of nectar in pollen. Scientists are
also looking into whether there is a link with significant recent bee losses
in some European countries, particularly Spain.

Bromenshenk of the University of Montana said the symptoms are similar to
"Dwindling Disease" that affected the U.S. bee population during the 1960s.
Some beekeepers have told him that they have been seeing the problem for up
to two years but have not reported it to authorities.

"It remains to be seen whether this is something new," he said.

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