Scientists Find Virus at Heart of Missing Honey Bees

Remember awakening after Winter to find nearly half of the honey bees in the United States had simply vanished?

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), limited primarily to commercial genetically-enhanced bees, practically decimated the pollination industry here and in Europe, and left scientists completely baffled…until this week.

For the last six months, a huge team of scientists and researchers have been conducting one of the largest-scale investigations ever seen.  Their result was the identification of a significant connection between an obscure insect virus and the massive CCD experienced across the U.S.

Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) was first identified in Israel in 2004 after massive numbers of their own honey bees began to disappear.  Also in 2004, the United States lifted an 80-year-old ban on importing bees designed to protect US honey makers from pests that plague the insects, and began importing honey bees from Australia.

“Every CCD-affected beekeeping operation that was examined [in the US recently] either used Australian bees or had mingled with operations that had them, the researchers said.

Not only did the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council unequivocally deny U.S. bees had been infected by Australian insects, but it is very important to acknowledge Australia has not experienced widespread colony collapses in their homeland.

Therefore, while scientists firmly agree the common denominator and likely trigger in U.S. bee hive decimations is IAPV, they firmly believe other factors are at play, such as predatorial mites, stress from being carted across the country, and pesticides.

Additionally, IAPV was discovered by scientists in royal jelly used to feed infant bees imported from China. 

The advice to U.S. beekeepers is to “maintain healthy colonies.”  Those bees that are well-fed, without mites, and protected from stress have immune systems capable of fighting off this virus.

So now we have a good idea of what happened to the bees and we have further reiterated the perils of trucking colonies from one field to another, states apart.  Moreover, we have underscored at least a dozen times in this matter what happens when you test Mother Nature.

Rebuilding our nation’s honey bee populations will take years.  And, on a pleasant note, those very Moms and Pops who have managed to survive the vast commercialization of the pollination industry are reaping the benefits of so many more enlightened consumers Hell-bent on buying local honey.  Allow me to recommend my FAVORITE in the Dallas area, a frequent vendor at the Dallas Farmers’ Market local produce building:  Roundrock Honey!  I kid you not, this honey has the BEST flavor I have EVER tasted.  And I certainly have tasted much more than my weight from honeys literally from across the U.S. and Europe.

Good news ofttimes comes in small doses.

Science Daily has all the details for those scientifically minded folks.

Where Have All the Honey Bees Gone???

At the request of several folks in the last week, I am reposting this article now buried in my February archives.  Finally, nearly three months later, other folks are beginning to hear about this looming disaster… 

 

***************************************

 

A remarkable phenomenon receiving very little press attention clearly places US fresh vegetable and fruit supplies this year in potentially grave danger.  For unexplainable reasons, nearly half of our nation’s honey bees have completely disappeared.

 

At the heart of the problem is a near total absence of mature worker bees, the ones which fly out and obtain nectar from flowers, pollinating plants as they go along, then return to the hive and actually make the honey from their collected nectar supply.  They’ve simply disappeared without a trace, leaving behind their hives, their honey, their broods, and their queen.  And, without the worker bees, hives are completely doomed and have died in the many thousands.

 

This die-off is primarily afflicting commercial bees, those that have been bred and genetically altered to create “super polinators” and the like.

 

Scientists are calling this mysterious phenomenon “Colony Collapse Disorder” or “Dwindle Disease.”  Whatever the cause or title, honey bee colonies are being decimated at a terrifying pace in 24 states so far in the last six months, with that number expected to grow as northern US beekeepers check on their own populations once the snows begin to thaw.  My own state of Texas is seeing a 70% loss of entire colonies since November of last year.  The West Coast is reporting up to 60% losses.

 

This spells sincere disaster for a myriad of fruits, vegetables and nuts that depend upon bees for pollination.  Topping the list of crops in peril is Florida’s orange crop and, from across the country, California’s most lucrative crop of all:  Almonds.  Running a close second are the blueberry crops of the north and northeast.  And there are so many other crops we consume by tons annually that are totally taken for granted.

 

This is certainly not the first disaster to strike honey bees in the US, with five or so outbreaks of wide-spread decimations going back to the late 1800s when records were first maintained.  But today’s plague is unquestionably the greatest destruction in not only numbers of bees affected, but in the likely damage and cost in unpollinated crops (and dearth thereof) ahead this Spring and Summer.

 

Of additional worry is that today’s dwindling beekeeping profession – at its very healthiest – maintains less than half of the honey bees that were used to pollinate crops in the continental US only 25 years ago.  As with so many other industries, modernization over the years has forced a multitude of beekeepers into other occupations to make a decent living.  And the remaining beekeepers have been forced to breed stronger and “hairier” bees to enhance every available characteristic necessary to improve pollination and remain competitive.  Bees no longer stay put in an area, but are loaded into tractor trailers and trucked all across our nation to pollinate crops.

 

No one really knows what is causing the die-off, but scientists, universities, extension offices and industry leaders are honing down the list of culprits.  A meeting of these folks was held just last week in Austin, Texas and another held last month in Florida, and both are citing the same list of targets.

 

Defined symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, are:

 

–         Adult bee population suddenly gone, with no evidence or accumulation of dead bees and cumulative “dead-out” rate of greater than 30% of the colonies;

–         Queen bee remaining in the hive with only young bees;

–         Brood, pollen and honey remain untouched in the hive; and

–         Little or no evidence found of robbing, wax moths or small hive beetle attacks.

 

The tentative hypothesis of scientists is that a virus, likely an Aspergillus species, is at fault, since high concentrations of that strain have been found in dissected bees.  But for that virus to have attacked, bees must have become susceptible because of lowered immunities and/or extreme stress.

 

The source of lowered immunity and stress has been suggested to be the likely culprit of a multitude of pesticides used to control mite populations that have plagued bees in the past, which are further causing Queens to spawn fewer workers and which are also living shorter lives than ever before.  A cited source of stress is due to beekeeper’s common day practice of loading up their hives and trucking them from one crop to another across the nation.  This, scientists say, may be spreading the Aspergillus viruses, while the bees are contained in these trailers, and certainly adding to the stress of the bees by being constantly uprooted.

 

Personally, this concerns the dickens out of me.  I understand and respect the symbiosis of honey bees in our food supply, so my fear level here is very high.   I also have long turned away from commercial honeys in favor of the incredibly fragrant and flavorful honeys from local sources, which I have supported strongly for years.  So my self-interest in keeping local bees healthy and happy is stellar.

 

Want to learn more?  The New York Times did a nice article last week found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=login 

 

Further reading and information is available at the American Beekeeping Federation at:

http://abfnet.org/ 

 

And all the scientific data you can digest can be found at the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research & Extension Consortium (MAAREC) here, with links to all the state’s individual data and comprehensive mappings:

http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/index.html 

 

 

Trust me folks:  If the honey bees go, so do we.

 

 

 

Where Have the Honey Bees Gone???

A remarkable phenomenon receiving very little press attention clearly places US fresh vegetable and fruit supplies this year in potentially grave danger.  For unexplainable reasons, nearly half of our nation’s honey bees have completely disappeared.

 

At the heart of the problem is a near total absence of mature worker bees, the ones which fly out and obtain nectar from flowers, pollinating plants as they go along, then return to the hive and actually make the honey from their collected nectar supply.  They’ve simply disappeared without a trace, leaving behind their hives, their honey, their broods, and their queen.  And, without the worker bees, hives are completely doomed and have died in the many thousands.

 

This die-off is primarily afflicting commercial bees, those that have been bred and genetically altered to create “super polinators” and the like.

 

Scientists are calling this mysterious phenomenon “Colony Collapse Disorder” or “Dwindle Disease.”  Whatever the cause or title, honey bee colonies are being decimated at a terrifying pace in 24 states so far in the last six months, with that number expected to grow as northern US beekeepers check on their own populations once the snows begin to thaw.  My own state of Texas is seeing a 70% loss of entire colonies since November of last year.  The West Coast is reporting up to 60% losses.

 

This spells sincere disaster for a myriad of fruits, vegetables and nuts that depend upon bees for pollination.  Topping the list of crops in peril is Florida’s orange crop and, from across the country, California’s most lucrative crop of all:  Almonds.  Running a close second are the blueberry crops of the north and northeast.  And there are so many other crops we consume by tons annually that are totally taken for granted.

 

This is certainly not the first disaster to strike honey bees in the US, with five or so outbreaks of wide-spread decimations going back to the late 1800s when records were first maintained.  But today’s plague is unquestionably the greatest destruction in not only numbers of bees affected, but in the likely damage and cost in unpollinated crops (and dearth thereof) ahead this Spring and Summer.

 

Of additional worry is that today’s dwindling beekeeping profession – at its very healthiest – maintains less than half of the honey bees that were used to pollinate crops in the continental US only 25 years ago.  As with so many other industries, modernization over the years has forced a multitude of beekeepers into other occupations to make a decent living.  And the remaining beekeepers have been forced to breed stronger and “hairier” bees to enhance every available characteristic necessary to improve pollination and remain competitive.  Bees no longer stay put in an area, but are loaded into tractor trailers and trucked all across our nation to pollinate crops.

 

No one really knows what is causing the die-off, but scientists, universities, extension offices and industry leaders are honing down the list of culprits.  A meeting of these folks was held just last week in Austin, Texas and another held last month in Florida, and both are citing the same list of targets.

 

Defined symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, are:

 

–         Adult bee population suddenly gone, with no evidence or accumulation of dead bees and cumulative “dead-out” rate of greater than 30% of the colonies;

–         Queen bee remaining in the hive with only young bees;

–         Brood, pollen and honey remain untouched in the hive; and

–         Little or no evidence found of robbing, wax moths or small hive beetle attacks.

 

The tentative hypothesis of scientists is that a virus, likely an Aspergillus species, is at fault, since high concentrations of that strain have been found in dissected bees.  But for that virus to have attacked, bees must have become susceptible because of lowered immunities and/or extreme stress.

 

The source of lowered immunity and stress has been suggested to be the likely culprit of a multitude of pesticides used to control mite populations that have plagued bees in the past, which are further causing Queens to spawn fewer workers and which are also living shorter lives than ever before.  A cited source of stress is due to beekeeper’s common day practice of loading up their hives and trucking them from one crop to another across the nation.  This, scientists say, may be spreading the Aspergillus viruses, while the bees are contained in these trailers, and certainly adding to the stress of the bees by being constantly uprooted.

 

Personally, this concerns the dickens out of me.  I understand and respect the symbiosis of honey bees in our food supply, so my fear level here is very high.   I also have long turned away from commercial honeys in favor of the incredibly fragrant and flavorful honeys from local sources, which I have supported strongly for years.  So my self-interest in keeping local bees healthy and happy is stellar.

 

Want to learn more?  The New York Times did a nice article last week found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=login 

 

Further reading and information is available at the American Beekeeping Federation at:

http://abfnet.org/ 

 

And all the scientific data you can digest can be found at the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research & Extension Consortium (MAAREC) here, with links to all the state’s individual data and comprehensive mappings:

http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/index.html 

 

 

Trust me folks:  If the honey bees go, so do we.