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MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF US BEES CREATING A BUZZ
By Jean-Louis Santini
AFP
April 6, 2007

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070407/ts_alt_afp/sciencenaturebeesus_07040702
0928

WASHINGTON - US beekeepers have been stung in recent months by the
mysterious disappearance of millions of bees threatening honey supplies as
well as crops which depend on the insects for pollination.

Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than
70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent.

According to estimates from the US Department of Agriculture, bees are
vanishing across a total of 22 states, and for the time being no one really
knows why.

"Approximately 40 percent of my 2,000 colonies are currently dead and this
is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in my 30
years of beekeeping," apiarist Gene Brandi, from the California State
Beekeepers Association, told Congress recently.

It is normal for hives to see populations fall by some 20 percent during the
winter, but the sharp loss of bees is causing concern, especially as
domestic US bee colonies have been steadily decreasing since 1980.

There are some 2.4 million professional hives in the country, according to
the Agriculture Department, 25 percent fewer than at the start of the 1980s.

And the number of beekeepers has halved.

The situation is so bad, that beekeepers are now calling for some kind of
government intervention, warning the flight of the bees could be
catastrophic for crop growers.

Domestic bees are essential for pollinating some 90 varieties of vegetables
and fruits, such as apples, avocados, and blueberries and cherries.

"The pollination work of honey bees increases the yield and quality of
United States crops by approximately 15 billion dollars annually including
six billion in California," Brandi said.

California's almond industry alone contributes two billion dollars to the
local economy, and depends on 1.4 million bees which are brought from around
the US every year to help pollinate the trees, he added.

The phenomenon now being witnessed across the United States has been dubbed
"colony collapse disorder," or CCD, by scientists as they seek to explain
what is causing the bees to literally disappear in droves.

The usual suspects to which bees are known to be vulnerable such as the
varroa mite, an external parasite which attacks honey bees and which can
wipe out a hive, appear not to be the main cause.

"CCD is associated with unique symptoms, not seen in normal collapses
associated with varroa mites and honey bee viruses or in colony deaths due
to winter kill," entomologist Diana Cox-Foster told the Congress committee.

In cases of colony collapse disorder, flourishing hives are suddenly
depopulated leaving few, if any, surviving bees behind.

The queen bee, which is the only one in the hive allowed to reproduce, is
found with just a handful of young worker bees and a reserve of food.

Curiously though no dead bees are found either inside or outside the hive.

The fact that other bees or parasites seem to shun the emptied hives raises
suspicions that some kind of toxin or chemical is keeping the insects away,
Cox-Foster said.

Those bees found in such devastated colonies also all seem to be infected
with multiple micro-organisms, many of which are known to be behind
stress-related illness in bees.

Scientists working to unravel the mysteries behind CCD believe a new
pathogen may be the cause, or a new kind of chemical product which could be
weakening the insects' immune systems.

The finger of suspicion is being pointed at agriculture pesticides such as
the widely-used neonicotinoides, which are already known to be poisonous to
bees.

France saw a huge fall in its bee population in the 1990s, blamed on the
insecticide Gaucho which has now been banned in the country.

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PREVIOUS NHNE NEWS LIST ARTICLES:

ARE GM CROPS KILLING BEES? (3/23/2007):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/12754

HONEYBEES VANISH, LEAVING KEEPERS IN PERIL (2/27/2007):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/12647

U.S. BEE COLONIES DECIMATED BY MYSTERIOUS AILMENT (2/14/2007):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/12588

PARASITE DEVASTATES U.S. BEES (5/2/2005):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/9104

MAD BEE DISEASE (2/20/2001):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/1181

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Published by David Sunfellow
NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
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