Unexplainable bee trend may effect consumer food supply
By Matthew Spolar email
Collegian Staff Writer March 30
A Penn State professor testified before Congress yesterday about the increasing severity of an enormous honeybee die-off that could lead to less fresh fruit for local consumers.
In an unexplainable trend, large commercial migratory beekeepers have reported losses of 50 to 90 percent of their colonies, and non-migratory beekeepers have reported losses as well, according to the Web site for the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium, maarec.cas.psu.edu.
Since pollination by the bees is needed to create fruits and vegetables, a lack of bees -- in a worst-case scenario -- could mean empty space on grocery store shelves, entomology Senior Extension Associate Maryann T. Frazier said.
In November, the first example of what experts are now calling "Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)" was reported by a Pennsylvania beekeeper wintering in Florida.
Worker bees are "disappearing," depleting colonies that were once 15,000-strong, entomology Professor Nancy Ostiguy said. While the bodies of both the dead and surviving bees at these colonies are being examined, she said researchers simply cannot account for many of the lost bees. Additionally, other colonies and pests that would normally ransack the resources of these abandoned colonies are mysteriously staying away.
"It's very bizarre," Ostiguy said.
Entomology Professor Diana Cox-Foster trekked to Washington, D.C., yesterday in an attempt to raise awareness about CCD and ask for emergency funding. She is part of a group of Penn State professors that has joined forces with experts at the University of Montana, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania and Florida departments of agriculture.
Four months since the group's inception, it has a lot of leads and very few answers.
"We basically have many of the leading experts on bees and bee biology involved, but we do not know why the bees are dying yet," Cox-Foster said.
Frazier said a test of the disorder's effect on in-state beekeepers could come as early as next month. Pennsylvania, one of the biggest apple producers in the eastern U.S., has an apple pollination season that typically runs from the last week of April to the first week of May, she said.
"We'll be waiting to see if we have enough bees," Frazier said.
While there may be enough bees to create a sufficient supply, consumers should also be concerned about the potential for a lot of bad apples. Fruits like apples require several pollinations to become fully formed, meaning an insufficient amount of pollination results in deformed fruit, Cox-Foster said.
Frazier said researchers are examining whether a known or unknown pathogen is causing the problem, or if the bees are suffering from a lack of nutrition -- possibly attributable to the effects of global warming on their traditional nectar sources.
Also, Frazier said they are also looking into the possibility that the bees may be succumbing to the stress they face over time.
Because of their necessity in plant growth, the honeybees are transported to farms around the country in accordance with the pollination seasons of different crops. This year, beekeepers are scrambling to fill each other's orders, she said.
Asked for a hunch as to what might be at the root of the problem, Frazier said a host of factors were still on the table, and there is probably more than one culprit.
"It's most likely a combination of things; it's hard for us to believe it's one sole cause," she said.
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Also:
Bees disappearing as mystery ailment sweeps U.S.
Updated Thu. Mar. 29 2007 10:52 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Bees are vanishing across the United States, leaving empty colonies behind and putting honey production in jeopardy -- and nobody knows why.
California beekeeper David Bradshaw said he's trying not to dwell on the fact that half his bees are gone.
"I'd be an emotional mess if I just kept thinking about the bees dying," he told CTV News.
Experts gathered in Washington Thursday at a House Agriculture Subcommittee, describing the mysterious threat as "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD).
The remains of dead bees usually remain inside a hive, unless worker bees carry their bodies them out. But colonies affected by CCD show no signs of the ailment, aside from a notable absence of mature bees.
It's possible the affected bees abandon the hive before dying, but scientists have yet to understand why or how.
In the past six months, U.S. beekeepers estimate they have lost between 50 and 90 per cent of their honeybees. One colony can have 60,000 bees in the summer, and that number drops to about 20,000 in the winter.
The condition of Canada's bees is not fully known, but the U.S. Congress was told it's likely Canadian hives likely share a similar fate.
"Recently, we have reports out of Canada that they have the exact same symptoms and collapses ongoing there," said Diana Cox-Foster, a professor of entomology with the Pennsylvania State University.
Scientists, beekeepers and officials started a CCD group in December 2006 to examine the cause of the disorder, and hopefully find a cure.
Not only are bees crucial to the agriculture industry in the production of honey, they also work as pollinators. Roughly 75 per cent of flowering plants require pollinators to bear fruit, including crops that produce the resources needed for drugs and fuel.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of Montana and Penn State are leading the study of CCD.
So far, they have noticed that affected colonies are still active, with remaining bees looking after developing bees. But when a colony is weakened, it's usually taken over by rival bees and other insects looking for honey.
And when scientists examined individual bees in affected colonies, they showed weakened immune systems and an increase in bacteria and foreign fungi.
Caird E. Rexroad, from the Agricultural Research Service, echoed that fact when he testified in front of the committee Thursday.
"We believe that some form of stress may be suppressing immune systems of bees, ultimately contributing to CCD," CNN quoted Rexroad as saying.
U.S. beekeepers had already taken a huge hit from varroa mite, a parasite that killed more than half of some colonies and also affected wild honeybee hives.
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