Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - [ocba] FW: Honey bee's

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "john wallace" <jwllace AT hotmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org, beehivedr AT aol.com, BUXNDUX33 AT YAHOO.COM, ngayle.young AT verizon.net
  • Subject: [ocba] FW: Honey bee's
  • Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2007 14:19:56 -0400




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





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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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























Logout








Earthfiles, news category.









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.”







_________________________________________________________________
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_2G_0507

Attachment: sunbannA.gif
Description: GIF image

Attachment: SunflowerBkgrd.jpg
Description: JPEG image



  • [ocba] FW: Honey bee's, john wallace, 07/22/2007

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page