Infections link to bees decline
By Katia Moskvitch
Science reporter, BBC News Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in honeybees could be caused by a “synergy” between groups of fungi and viruses. US researchers claim to have identified a new potential cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in honeybees. The disease is responsible for wiping out many beekeepers’ entire colonies over the past few years. Scientists from the US Department of Agriculture say the pathogens to blame are a fungus and a family of viruses. The results of the study were presented at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego, California. Jay Evans of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, a researcher on the study, says that when these two very different pathogens show up together, “there is a significant correlation with colony decline”. Daniel Weaver, a commercial beekeeper from Texas and head of the BeeWeaver Apiaries Inc, remembers the shock he experienced when he opened his hives in the early spring of 2007 – only to find them empty. “There was only a queen and ten or twelve bees left in a hive, clustered in one corner. There were broods, but very few of adult bees. “And there were no signs of poisoning or any other signs of acute mortality – there were no dead bees on the bottom of the hive or outside the hive,” said Weaver. Other US beekeepers, many of whom have been in the business for a long time and have always had normal, healthy bee colonies, started noticing a similar problem at about the same time. Some had lost up to 90% of their bee populations, and every year since 2006 many have been reporting average losses of 30-35% of hives. … Weaver says he just hopes the buzzing honey workers will continue to fight CCD – because without them, the world just wouldn’t be the same. “Without bees, our world would be a very dreary place to live. So many delicious fruits wouldn’t be available and so many wonderful plants wouldn’t be able to propagate and reproduce,” he said. “A very dull and dreary place indeed.”
