North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hello All,

 

There is a preliminary report on Colony Collapse Disorder to be found here;

 

       http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pressReleases/PrelimReportFallDwindle.pdf

 

I found this interesting… (regarding affected bee keepers in east coast states)

 

“All producers experienced some form of extraordinary “Stress” at least 2 months

prior to the first incidence of “die off” associated with “Fall dwindle disease”.

The nature of this stress was variable but included nutritional stress (apiary over-

crowding, pollination of crops with little nutritional value), dramatic pollen and

nectar dearth, or varroa mite pressure. Due to drought in some areas, the bees

may have had limited water resources or contaminated water supplies.

•

Implications

i. Stress compromises the immune system of bees, making them

more susceptible to infection by opportunistic microbes. “

 

I can only assume that the original name for the problem “Fall Dwindle Disease” was not sexy enough, and was changed to “Colony Collapse Disorder”.

 

We do know that the east coast had a very, very wet spring last season with a lot of flooding.

 

Later.

Tom