[ocba] FW: Honey bee's

john wallace jwllace at hotmail.com
Sun Jul 22 14:19:56 EDT 2007




>From: "Phil Richards" <prichards at nc.rr.com>
>To: "John Wallace" <jwllace at hotmail.com>
>Subject: FW: Honey bee's
>Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2007 13:30:17 -0400
>
>Sunflower
>JOHN ,  just passing this on.
>
>Phil Richards
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>Some interesting articles on the plight of bee's...and the usual scientific
>disagreement which they'd better get over quickly.
>
>
>       Asian Parasite Killing Western Bees - Scientist
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>       Mail this story to a friend | Printer friendly version
>
>       SPAIN: July 19, 2007
>
>
>       MADRID - A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and 
>the
>Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many
>countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon 
>for
>years.
>
>
>       The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae said
>Mariano Higes, who leads a team of researchers at a government-funded
>apiculture centre in Guadalajara, the province east of Madrid that is the
>heartland of Spain's honey industry.
>       He and his colleagues have analysed thousands of samples from 
>stricken
>hives in many countries.
>
>       "We started in 2000 with the hypothesis that it was pesticides, but
>soon ruled it out," he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
>
>       Pesticide traces were present only in a tiny proportion of samples 
>and
>bee colonies were also dying in areas many miles from cultivated land, he
>said.
>
>       They then ruled out the varroa mite, which is easy to see and which
>was not present in most of the affected hives.
>
>       For a long time Higes and his colleagues thought a parasite called
>nosema apis, common in wet weather, was killing the bees.
>
>       "We saw the spores, but the symptoms were very different and it was
>happening in dry weather too."
>
>       Then he decided to sequence the parasite's DNA and discovered it was
>an Asian variant, nosema ceranae. Asian honeybees are less vulnerable to 
>it,
>but it can kill European bees in a matter of days in laboratory conditions.
>
>       "Nosema ceranae is far more dangerous and lives in heat and cold. A
>hive can become infected in two months and the whole colony can collapse in
>six to 18 months," said Higes, whose team has published a number of papers
>on the subject.
>
>       "We've no doubt at all it's nosema ceranae and we think 50 percent 
>of
>Spanish hives are infected," he said.
>
>       Spain, with 2.3 million hives, is home to a quarter of the European
>Union's bees.
>
>       His team have also identified this parasite in bees from Austria,
>Slovenia and other parts of Eastern Europe and assume it has invaded from
>Asia over a number of years.
>
>       Now it seems to have crossed the Atlantic and is present in Canada 
>and
>Argentina, he said. The Spanish researchers have not tested samples from 
>the
>United States, where bees have also gone missing.
>
>       Treatment for nosema ceranae is effective and cheap -- 1 euro 
>(US$1.4)
>a hive twice a year -- but beekeepers first have to be convinced the
>parasite is the problem.
>
>       Another theory points a finger at mobile phone aerials, but Higes
>notes bees use the angle of the sun to navigate and not electromagnetic
>frequencies.
>
>       Other elements, such as drought or misapplied treatments, may play a
>part in lowering bees' resistance, but Higes is convinced the Asian 
>parasite
>is the chief assassin.
>
>       ALSO
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>                   Earthfiles, news category.
>
>
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>
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>
>                   Environmental Emergency Updates:
>                   Part 1 - Spreading Honey Bee Disappearances -
>                   Nosema ceranae Not the Answer?
>
>
>                   © 2007 by Linda Moulton Howe
>
>                   "Nosema ceranae certainly is a stressor, but it
>                   doesn’t seem to be the smoking gun that we were looking
>for."
>                   - Jerry Hayes, Apiary Chief, Florida Dept. of 
>Agriculture
>
>
>
>                   Left: Single-cell protozoan by Science Source. Right:
>Honey bees atop hive board.
>                   Another protozoan, Nosema ceranae, has recently been
>linked to honey bee die-offs in Spain,
>                   France, other European countries and the United States.
>But Colony Collapse Disorder
>                   scientists say it's not the final answer to CCD. Honey 
>bee
>image © 2007 by Matt Cardy/Getty.
>
>
>
>                   May 4, 2007  Gainesville, Florida - In the last week of
>April 2007, media headlined that University of California-San Francisco
>biochemists had “tracked down suspect in honey bee disappearances.”
>
>                   The culprit? The news media called it a fungus. But it’s 
>a
>one-celled protozoan called Nosema ceranae. The problem with that suspect?
>Nosema ceranae had been identified long before in Spain, other European
>countries and the United States – in both healthy, normal honey bees, as
>well as bee bodies found around empty hives where Colony Collapse Disorder
>(CCD) has been reported. In CCD, the bees have disappeared in the billions
>in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres since the fall of 2006.
>
>                   Five months ago in December 2006, scientists in the CCD
>Working Group publicly reported that whatever was causing the massive honey
>bee disappearances was also severely suppressing honey bee immune systems –
>leaving the bees vulnerable to all sorts of pathogens, including the Nosema
>protozoan.
>
>                   The fragility of the honey bee immune system was 
>confirmed
>by the genome project last October, which for the first time mapped all the
>genes in honey bees. DNA researchers found that there weren’t many genes to
>deal with poisons or to fight off disease. The conclusion was that honey
>bees might be especially vulnerable to attacks by pathogens and pesticides
>and other toxins.
>
>                   The University of Montana’s Bee Alert group recently
>surveyed more than 500 American  beekeepers to find out how many have had
>bees disappear. The statistic now is: 38% of beekeepers have reported hive
>disappearances, some losing 75% or more of all their bees. One bee colony 
>in
>California went from thriving to disappearance in only two days.
>
>                   That’s why the late April 2007 UC-San Francisco
>announcement that Nosema ceranae was most likely the cause of CCD was
>surprising and confusing. The protozoan was already on the growing list of
>hypotheses that more than a hundred American scientists have been trying to
>study for half a year in an effort to solve the honey bee mystery. This 
>week
>I asked Jerry Hayes, Chief of the Apiary Section, at Florida’s Dept. of
>Agriculture in Gainesville, Florida, about the Nosema news release and the
>spread of Colony Collapse Disorder into China, Taiwan, Guatemala and 
>Brazil.
>
>
>
>                   Click for Earthfiles Podcast
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                   Interview:
>
>                   Jerry Hayes, Chief, Apiary Section, Florida Department 
>of
>Agriculture, Gainesville, Florida: “That was kind of an awkward situation
>because the CCD Working Group (of scientists) had already identified Nosema
>ceranae, which is a one-celled protozoan that can live in the honey bee’s
>intestine. The lab in California (UC-San Francisco) did not contact us. But
>it was good that they did the work because it confirmed what we had already
>known.
>
>                   But Nosema ceranae does not seem to be a major player at
>this time because all of the samples we have taken from all bees seem to
>have Nosema ceranae in them. So it’s not something that appears to be a
>brand new pathogen.
>
>                   WELL, THEN WHY DID THIS HIT THE HEADLINES WITH THAT
>PROFESSOR SEEMING TO SAY THIS IS THE ANSWER?
>
>                   You’ve got me, Linda.
>
>                   I WANTED TO UNDERSTAND BECAUSE I HAD TALKED WITH YOU AND
>PROF. COX-FOSTER AND ALL OF THESE PEOPLE IN THE TWO WEEKS LEADING UP TO 
>WHEN
>YOU AND I HAD TALKED.
>
>                   Right.
>
>                   AND NOBODY WAS FOCUSING ON NOSEMA, BUT I KNEW IT HAD 
>COME
>UP BACK IN FEBRUARY BECAUSE THEY HAD FOUND IT IN SPAIN.
>
>                   Yes. And there was separate diagnosis of that at the 
>USDA
>lab in Beltsville, Maryland, probably a month ago. So, this was not
>something new to us and then to have this kind of blurted out we thought 
>was
>kind of interesting.
>
>                   IS THERE ANY REASON WHY THE SAN FRANCISCO RESEARCHERS 
>WHO
>PUT OUT THE INFORMATION ABOUT NOSEMA CERANAE POSSIBLY BEING THE EXPLANATION
>FOR THE COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER NOT HAVING CHECKED WITH THE COLONY 
>COLLAPSE
>DISORDER SCIENTISTS BEFORE RELEASING THE INFORMATION?
>
>                   It certainly seems to be a disconnect in the 
>communication
>process and we hope in the future our other colleagues in other realms and
>expertise will be able to work more closely with us. These guys (UC-San
>Francisco) kind of charged ahead and identified something we already knew
>about. This Nosema has been widely identified in Europe, including Spain 
>and
>France, for several years. So there are treatments and controls for it and
>it’s something that beekeepers are addressing already.
>
>                   WHY DID THE COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER SCIENCE GROUP 
>DISMISS
>NOSEMA CERANAE AS NOT BEING THE CAUSE FOR THE GENERAL DISAPPEARANCE OF 
>HONEY
>BEES?
>
>                   Because beekeepers were already in many cases treating
>with the antibiotic for Nosema in the samples that we took. So, some of the
>samples the beekeepers had been treating and did not have Nosema. Some of
>the samples, the beekeepers had not been treating. So, there didn’t seem to
>be a connection. CCD appeared whether the beekeepers were treating for
>Nosema or not.
>
>                   SO, THE IDEA THAT THE SAN FRANCISCO RESEARCHERS RELEASED
>IN THEIR ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THIS NOSEMA UNICELLULAR PROTOZOAN WAS FOUND IN
>ALL OF THE BODIES OF THE BEES THAT THEY STUDIED – THAT IS MISLEADING?
>
>                   I think they jumped the gun, yes.
>
>                   IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A FLUKE THAT THE BEES THEY 
>SPECIFICALLY
>RECEIVED FOR STUDY HAD NOSEMA, BUT IT DID NOT REPRESENT THE UNIVERSAL
>COLLECTION THAT YOU ALL HAVE BEEN STUDYING SINCE THE FALL OF 2006?
>
>                   It’s kind of interesting that all of the samples we’ve
>taken and even all the samples of even healthy colonies all show Nosema
>ceranae. We can’t find another Nosema – Nosema apis. All honey bees we have
>examined have Nosema ceranae, but only some are from Colony Collapse
>Disorder hives. And there is a treatment for Nosema ceranae that beekeepers
>use. So, Nosema ceranae certainly is a stressor, but it doesn’t seem to be
>the smoking gun that we were looking for.
>
>                   THE FACT THAT BOTH HEALTHY AND COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER
>BEES WOULD HAVE NOSEMA FITS AGAIN INTO PROF. COX-FOSTER’S HYPOTHESIS THAT
>THIS WAS A SYMPTOM OF IMMUNE COLLAPSE.
>
>                   Yes. It seems to be a stronger hypothesis as the days go
>by that something is affecting the bees’ immune system and many of these
>things we are finding, which are normal pathogens are proliferating because
>the bees’ immune system cannot handle them.
>
>                   IT SOUNDS AS IF THE CALIFORNIA RESEARCHERS HAD NOT 
>STUDIED
>THE COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER SCIENCE GROUP’S WORK FROM DECEMBER 2006 
>ONWARD.
>THEY MADE A LEAP BASED ON A FINDING AS OPPOSED TO PLACING THE FINDING IN 
>THE
>CONTEXT OF, LET’S SAY, THE IDEA OF SUPPRESSED IMMUNE SYSTEMS MAKING THE 
>BEES
>GENERALLY VULNERABLE TO MORE PATHOGENS?
>
>                   Yes. They made a leap. We just need to collaborate more 
>so
>we can move ahead and see what we can find.
>
>                   AS YOU AND I SPEAK ON MAY 2, 2007, IS IT CORRECT TO DATE
>THAT THERE STILL IS NOT AN ANSWER TO COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER?
>
>                   No, there is not. In fact, I’m going down (near Ft. 
>Myers,
>Florida) and take a whole other series of bee samples from some commercial
>beekeepers. And we’re getting reports from other parts of the country that
>they are just now finding it as spring comes and this is ongoing.”
>
>                   The first week in May 2007, the National Program Leader
>for the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s bee and pollination program told
>Associated Press that if the honey bee collapse continues to worsen,
>Americans could end up “stuck with grains and water. This is the biggest
>general threat to our food supply.”
>
>
>
>                   More Countries Reporting Massive Honey Bee 
>Disappearances:
>China, Taiwan, Guatemala and Brazil
>
>
>                   Bees outside hive at the Blackhorse Apiary Beekeeping
>Centre in Surrey, U.K.
>                   Colony Collapse Disorder has spread to the U.K., eight
>other European countries, China,
>                   Guatemala and Brazil.  Image © 2007 by Matt Cardy, Getty
>Images.
>
>                   At the end of April 2007, there were two important
>meetings concerning the disappearing honey bee phenomenon known as Colony
>Collapse Disorder. One was a meeting of scientists and beekeepers at the
>USDA laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. The other was a House Subcommittee
>Horticulture meeting organized by Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings. His
>state’s beekeepers have been badly hurt by honey bee losses.
>
>                   The Apiary Inspectors of America now estimate that at
>least a quarter of the 2.4 million bee colonies in the United States have
>disappeared since the fall of 2006. Some honey bee colonies have entirely
>disappeared in only two days.
>
>
>
>                   Asia and Southern Hemisphere
>
>                     1)  China
>                     2)  Taiwan
>                     3)  Guatemala
>                     4)   Brazil
>
>                   Scientists, beekeepers and government investigators
>learned that China is now reporting bee disappearances, along with Brazil
>and Guatemala. That means the Colony Collapse Disorder now extends into the
>Southern Hemisphere. And on April 26th, Taiwan was added to the list.
>Reuters reported that over the past two months, farmers in three Taiwan
>regions have notified authorities that bees are gone. Taiwan has been
>unusually warm and entomologists at National Taiwan University wonder if
>global warming, combined with nicotine-based pesticides that affect bee
>memories, could be the cause.
>
>
>
>                   North America
>
>                     1)  Canada (Ontario and Saskatchewan provinces)
>                     2)  27 states    Map-in-progress from:
>http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/
>
>
>                   February 2007 map of CCD-affected states in orange by 
>Bee
>Alert and MAAREC.
>
>                   In North America, CCD has been reported by 27 American
>states now and two provinces in Canada – Saskatchewan and Ontario.
>
>
>
>                   Europe
>
>                   In Europe so far, nine nations are reporting deserted
>honey bee hives:
>
>                     1)   Spain
>                     2)   Poland
>                     3)   Greece
>                     4)   Croatia
>                     5)   Switzerland
>                     6)   Italy
>                     7)   Portugal
>                     8)   Germany
>                     9)   England
>
>                   Researchers have found multiple viruses, the Nosema
>ceranae protozoan and various fungi in the affected bees, suggesting that
>whatever is happening, the immune systems of the bees is severely weakened.
>Prof. Diana Cox-Foster, a Pennsylvania State University entomologist, told
>me she has never seen five viruses combined with several unidentified fungi
>all in a bee gut at the same time. “This is extremely unusual,” she said.
>
>                   A USDA laboratory in North Carolina is now studying bee
>bodies to test for 117 chemicals. The one pesticide that is at the top of
>most scientific lists of possible culprits in Colony Collapse Disorder are
>the relatively new nicotine-based pesticides such as Imidacloprid.
>Ironically, when these Neonicitinoids came on the market, manufacturers
>thought the nicotine-based chemicals would be less toxic in the 
>environment.
>But no one had done detailed studies about the affects of nicotine-based
>pesticides on honey bees and other pollinators until recently. It’s been
>confirmed that the nicotine-based toxins can impair bee memories, which
>might explain why the bee hives are deserted. Perhaps the bees are becoming
>disoriented and unable to fly back home.
>
>                   One of the contributors to the USDA meeting in Maryland 
>on
>April 23 to 24, was Jerry Hayes, Chief of the Apiary Section in the Florida
>Dept. of Agriculture in Gainesville. I asked him what was discussed at the
>USDA meeting about the fact that the Colony Collapse Disorder is not going
>away this spring, but seems to be expanding into China, Taiwan and the
>Southern Hemisphere.
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                   Interview:
>
>                   Jerry Hayes, Chief, Apiary Section, Florida Department 
>of
>Agriculture, Gainesville, Florida: “Well, at the meeting I was able to
>attend in Beltsville, Maryland, at USDA for the Colony Collapse Disorder
>Working Group that was assembled, there was discussion about how we can
>partner with Europeans and our colleagues in South America. And also we had
>word yesterday (April 24, 2007) that China is experiencing this thing. So,
>this is a global issue and global problem.
>
>                   So what does that mean from a global standpoint? Is this 
>a
>new pathogen? Is this a new pest? Is it chemicals we use in developing
>countries and production agriculture? So, it opens up a whole new Pandora’s
>Box.
>
>
>
>                   Cell Phone Towers and Microwave Frequencies?
>
>                   WHAT ABOUT THE ISSUE OF CELL PHONE TOWERS AND THE SPREAD
>OF MICROWAVES? RECENTLY GERMAN RESEARCH MADE HEADLINES IN THE LAST TWO 
>WEEKS
>FROM EUROPE. COULD YOU COMMENT ON WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT SO FAR?
>
>                   This certainly was a topic on the periphery in the 
>Colony
>Collapse Working Group meeting in Maryland, but none of it was taken too
>seriously because apparently if you read the whole paper, there was no
>statistical evidence that cell phones or microwaves or magnetic radiation
>was involved (with CCD). The way I understood it was that a group in 
>Germany
>that is anti-technology kind of released this microwave news with a spin to
>get the media’s attention since the media has already given so much
>attention to the Colony Collapse Disorder. So, the news release was not
>taken very seriously by any of my colleagues.
>
>                   COULD YOU COMMENT ON THE WORK OF BEE ALERT AND JERRY
>BROMENSHENK, PH.D., AND THEIR STUDY ON MICROWAVES AND BEES?
>
>                   Yes. Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk from the University of 
>Montana
>was at the CCD Working Group meeting earlier this week and he actually
>offered that they had looked at that research several years ago by putting
>cell phones and big electromagnetic fields around colonies just to see if
>this was going to be a problem and might be an issue that needed to be
>looked at more closely. They were not able to find any causative problems
>from them (cell phones and electromagnetic fields).
>
>                   It seems that all bees at some level are being affected 
>by
>whatever the causative organism or toxin is that causes CCD.
>
>
>
>                   Nicotine-Based Pesticides?
>
>                   WHEN WE TALKED IN EARLY MARCH, THERE WERE A LOT OF
>QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEONICITINOIDS, SPECIFICALLY IMIDACLOPRID AND OTHER
>NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES THAT CAME ON THE MARKET IN RECENT YEARS. HAS 
>THERE
>BEEN ANY PROGRESS IN TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE FACT THAT THE NEONICITINOIDS
>INTERFERE WITH THE BEES’ ABILITY TO REMEMBER?
>
>                   There certainly is existing data out there. There was a
>representative from Bayer, a company that makes some of the Neonicitinoids.
>I believe Syngenta was also on the conference call line at our meeting and
>they were all very helpful. They would certainly like to get to the bottom
>of this also. So, there is data out there and these Neonicitinoids stay in
>the soil for a very long time. In fact, data shows that in temperate
>climates where they have winter, it’s not unusual for those chemicals to
>stay active in the soil for a year to eighteen months or longer.
>
>                   IF MORE KEEPS BEING ADDED, THEN IT WOULD BE ALMOST
>IMPOSSIBLE FOR PEOPLE TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE EXPOSURE OF THE POLLINATORS
>WOULD BE TO NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES THAT KEEP BEING BUILT UP.
>
>                   That’s exactly right and there is an interesting study 
>of
>neonicicotinoids, and Imidacloprid in particular, on potatoes to control 
>the
>Colorado potato beetle. So, the researchers applied it and it was systemic
>and controlled the Colorado potato beetle.
>
>                   So, the next year they planted potatoes, the researchers
>did not treat the crop again (with Imidacloprid) and they found that
>potatoes grown on that same soil still killed the Colorado potato beetle.
>
>                   THAT MEANS IT WAS STRONG ENOUGH IN THE SOIL WITHOUT EVEN
>ANOTHER APPLICATION?
>
>                   Yes. Then what happens if you do follow directions and
>make the application every year for five years. How long does it stay in 
>the
>soil? And what does it mean for crops that are deep rooted? What does it
>mean for crops that are shallow rooted? We have a lot of questions here,
>Linda.
>
>                   I THINK IT WAS DR. COX-FOSTER WHO POINTED OUT TO ME THAT
>THE AMOUNT OF NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDE THAT COULD IMPACT THE BEES MIGHT BE
>MUCH LOWER THAN ANYBODY HAS BEEN MEASURING. THE QUESTION OF ACCUMULATION
>OVER TIME IS NOT UNDERSTOOD AND IT MIGHT BE THAT IS THE BIG CULPRIT?
>
>                   Yes, it could be.
>
>                   IF IT IS, HOW DO WE PUT THE GENIE BACK IN THE BOTTLE? 
>THE
>NEONICITINOIDS ARE SO WIDESPREAD OUT IN THE WORLD.
>
>                   Yes, and that is the hard thing about it. The
>neonicitinoids replaced OPs, organic phosphates, which are very persistent
>in toxic chemicals. So, when they found this new chemistry 
>(nicotine-based),
>it was thought to be good. Now, the neonicitinoids – or at least
>Imidacloprid – has come off patent. So, it will be used even more as the
>price goes down, but we certainly don’t want to pit one industry against
>another unless there is a replacement. We don’t want beekeepers pointing
>fingers at growers for using pesticides to preserve their industry, nor do
>we want the grower industry to point their fingers at the beekeepers 
>saying,
>‘You made me lose my business because I can’t use these chemicals anymore.’
>So, it’s a tight rope, Linda.
>
>                   WHAT IF IT COMES DOWN TO SURVIVAL VERSUS MONEY?
>
>                   I vote for survival, but I’m only one voice in the
>wilderness here.
>
>                   YES. I’M ASSUMING THAT HUMANS AND ANIMALS WOULD WANT TO
>SURVIVE. IF IT BECOMES SCIENTIFICALLY PROVED THAT THE NEONICITINOIDS AND
>PERHAPS OTHER PESTICIDES SUCH AS FUNGICIDES ALL LAYERED TOGETHER ARE 
>KILLING
>OUT THE POLLILNATORS OF THE WORLD, AREN’T WE GOING TO HAVE TO PUT A STOP TO
>THE USE OF PESTICIDES AT SOME LEVEL?
>
>                   Yes.
>
>                   HOW WILL THAT HAPPEN? THAT’S WHAT I MEAN ABOUT PUTTING 
>THE
>GENIE BACK IN THE BOTTLE.
>
>                   Coming from a government bureaucratic environment here,
>the proper course of action would be to get the scientific data that proves
>this, submit the scientific data to the EPA and then they would have no
>choice but to pull the product/s.
>
>                   IN TERMS OF SCIENCE, WHO IS NOW STUDYING THE
>NICOTINE-BASED PESTICIDES THE MOST IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE POLLINATORS?
>
>                   At the Working Group meeting, pesticides are on the list
>of things we want to look at, but until the money is let out to USDA to in
>turn distribute, there have been no collaborators designated or identified
>that will look at that particular issue at this time.
>
>                   SO THERE IS NO SCIENCE BASED ON THE NICOTINE-BASED
>PESTICIDES IN RELATIONSHIP TO POLLINATORS BECAUSE THERE IS NO ADDITIONAL
>FUNDING SO FAR?
>
>                   Yes, m’am.
>
>                   IS THIS WHAT THE HOUSE CONGRESSIONAL SUBCOMMITTEE IS
>ADDRESSING IN TERMS OF HAVING PROPOSALS THAT THEY CAN FUND SPECIFICALLY TO
>TRY TO GET A HANDLE ON WHAT IS HAPPENING TO POLLINATORS IN NORTH AMERICA?
>
>                   Yes, exactly, because of the media attention and the
>reality of the loss of this key niche in agriculture, our legislators in
>Washington are keenly aware that help in resources needs to be devoted to
>the honey bee industry.
>
>
>
>                   Electromagnetic Field Changes?
>
>                   SOME PEOPLE HAVE SUGGESTED THAT MAYBE IT HAS SOMETHING 
>TO
>DO WITH SOLAR RADIATION OR MAGNETIC FIELD CHANGES AROUND THE EARTH. IS 
>THERE
>ANY SCIENTIST SPECIFICALLY LOOKING AT MAGNETIC FIELD CHANGES ON THE EARTH
>THAT MIGHT AFFECT THE BEES?
>
>                   No. The feeling about the magnetic fields was that it
>certainly should be looked at, but we all have a hard time thinking that on
>a U. S./North American/global basis that all the bees would be affected in
>the same way at the same time. There are blanks and gaps in the
>electromagnetic fields. So, it seems to us that it’s probably more likely 
>to
>be some type of toxin – whether it’s manmade or comes from a bacteria or
>fungus or what have you, rather than just one thing we can blame CCD on.
>Changes in electromagnetic fields could be a part of the problem, but we 
>don
>’t think it is the primary part.
>
>
>
>                   "Pesticide Cocktails" Overwhelming Honey Bees?
>
>                   WHAT WOULD BE AT THE TOP OF YOUR PRIORITY LIST IN TERMS 
>OF
>POSSIBLE CAUSES?
>
>                   We certainly have to look at environmental toxins and
>agricultural toxins. Then we have to also look at miticides that beekeepers
>have been using for some time to control parasitic mites (varroa) that were
>introduced several years ago from Asia that suck the blood of honey bees.
>Then we have to look at the carriers of these materials. Then we have to
>look at nutrition issues and fungicides.
>
>
>                   Varroa mites are about 1 millimeter long
>                   and suck blood from both adult honey bees and their
>                   developing brood. Image courtesy Univ. of Kentucky.
>
>
>                   Honey bees can forage in about a two to two and a half
>mile radius of their colony efficiently. So, they can bring back a lot of
>things from the environment, from industry, from waste products. The honey
>bees can also be exposed to many things in an agricultural setting. Bees 
>wax
>is a chemical sponge. Everything the bee brings back in, many times it is
>sucked up and stored in the bees wax. It’s almost like a hair sample from a
>human head. Scientists can tell pretty much what a person has been exposed
>to over several weeks or months. It’s the same thing with bees wax.
>
>                   So, what happens when bees wax absorbs many different
>things? What’s the synergism with bees wax? What does that mean when honey
>bees are exposed to pesticides 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 365 days 
>a
>year? Data that was shared at the meeting indicated that there were a lot 
>of
>things in there (sampled CCD bees wax), including metabolites. As pesticide
>chemicals break down into metabolites, the metabolites can be more toxic
>than the actual toxin.
>
>                   One, you have to identify the (metabolites) and then you
>have to ask: What does this mean in the context of everything the honey 
>bees
>are being exposed to? This takes analysis with urgency because we can’t 
>have
>beekeepers losing 30% to 60% or more of their bee colonies next year as
>well. Then it’s just going to get worse. We need to come up with some
>answers and recommendations pretty quickly.
>
>
>
>                   2007 Shortage of Pollinators in U. S.
>
>                   IS IT FAIR TO SAY THAT RIGHT NOW AS DR. COX-FOSTER TOLD 
>ME
>IN LATE APRIL, ‘THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH POLLINATORS NOW TO GO AROUND IN THE
>UNITED STATES?’
>
>                   It’s getting pretty slim. We’ve had some tight 
>situations
>here in Florida where growers have not been able to get pollinators. With
>the demands of the almond crop in California dominating the need for
>pollinators in the next few years, the question is: If every beehive in the
>U. S. goes to almonds, what does that mean for the states the bees traveled
>from? What does it mean for watermelons, blue berries, cranberries,
>cucumbers, and apples? I can go on and on and on. The health and vitality 
>of
>the honey beekeeping industry really needs to be fostered.
>
>                   HOW CAN IT BE IF THE BEES KEEP DISAPPEARING?
>
>                   Yes, that’s an excellent question. Exactly! That’s why 
>we
>have to work as hard as we can and as intelligently as we can and get as
>many resources as we can so we can answer those questions. We certainly 
>don’
>t want a shortage of fruits and nuts and berries to be the driving force
>behind this.
>
>
>
>                   "It’s pretty spooky we still don't have answers."
>
>                   THIS IS THE SEVENTH MONTH SINCE OCTOBER 2006 WHEN DAVE
>HACKENBERG (HACKENBERG APIARY, PENNSYLVANIA) FIRST WENT TO PENN STATE AND
>THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SAYING THAT HE HAD LOST SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 
>40%
>TO 60% OF HIS HIVES. YET, THERE STILL ARE NO ANSWERS. WITH MORE THAN 100
>SCIENTISTS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS GOING ON, ISN’T IT REMARKABLE THERE
>ARE NO ANSWERS?
>
>                   Yes, and it’s pretty spooky we still don't have answers.
>We have a tendency in the research community to have healthy egos, meaning
>that if you give me a problem and I have the appropriate equipment and we
>can partner with other colleagues, that anything could be solved. After
>seven months and not being able to solve something that on the surface 
>would
>seem to be pretty easy to solve, it’s confusing and frustrating and is
>bringing some level of anxiety to all of us to work even harder.
>
>                   THE FACT THAT CCD IS SPREADING IN BOTH THE NORTHERN AND
>SOUTHERN HEMISPHERES, WHEN YOU WERE IN THE CCD MEETING, WHAT WERE THE
>COMMENTS?
>
>                   Concern. And if I could use the word fear because we in
>this CCD group know how important honey bees are to the production of the
>foods we eat. And we have not even talked about the fruits, nuts and 
>berries
>that honey bees pollinate that feed wildlife.
>
>                   With CCD spreading in both hemispheres and not having
>answers after seven months of research, there are a lot of anxious feeling
>out there.
>
>                   WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THIS HUGE MYSTERY THAT THE HONEY 
>BEES
>ARE DISAPPEARING GLOBALLY, INTUITIVELY DO YOU HAVE SOME KIND OF GUT 
>INSTINCT
>ABOUT WHAT COULD BE GOING ON?
>
>                   Yes. I think personally we have a new, or more robust,
>pathogen that combined with chemical toxins that are causing the honey 
>bees’
>fragile immune systems to be weakened further. It has taken hold because 
>all
>reports are from developed or developing nations that use chemicals quite
>widely. With global trade and movement of organisms throughout the world
>very quickly, that makes sense to me.
>
>                   BUT DOESN’T IT SEEM STRANGE THAT SCIENTISTS IN EUROPE,
>CANADA, THE UNITED STATES AND NOW THE ONES THAT WOULD BE LOOKING IN BRAZIL,
>CHINA AND GUATEMALA, THAT NO ONE HAS COME UP WITH A COMMON DENOMINATOR IN
>ALL OF THE REGIONS?
>
>                   Yes, and I think that’s because there is not a single
>common denominator. I think there are probably three or four common
>denominators and they are all intersecting at one time. The bees are 
>holding
>up their little legs and saying, ‘I give up.’
>
>                   BUT WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED AT THE END OF 2006 GOING 
>INTO
>THE FALL THAT CHANGED FROM THE PREVIOUS YEARS?
>
>                   Yes. Excellent question. Those are all science-based
>questions. Neither I nor anyone else knows what that could be that would be
>on a global basis.
>
>                   I GUESS IT’S PRAY THERE CAN BE AN ANSWER HERE SOON. IF
>NOT, WHAT DO YOU GUYS DO?
>
>                   It’s not ‘what do you guys do?’ It’s what do we do? 
>We’re
>all on this spaceship Earth together. How, with all our other brothers and
>sisters in the world, how do we approach this? Then, how do we fix or solve
>a problem? And also, how do we share resources and not be quite so selfish
>in doing that? I’m not quite sure we humans have learned how to do that 
>well
>enough yet.”
>
>
>
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
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