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  PlanetArk 7 Sep 07
Newly Discovered Virus May be Killing Bees - Study
Story by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

Yahoo News 15 Jun 07
Scientists examine cause of bee die-off
By GENARO C. ARMAS, Associated Press Writer

Yahoo News 14 Jun 07
Weather said to blame for bee die-off
By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press Writer

Maryland beekeepers have lost 45 percent of their bees since last year — but the death toll is likely attributable to weather, not a national trend of mysterious die-offs, Maryland's top bee inspector said Wednesday.

An unusually warm November and December likely caused high fatalities in the state's 8,200 bee colonies, said Jerry Fischer, state apiary inspector.

In a briefing to the state Agricultural Commission, Fischer said the warm early winter fooled bees into continuing reproduction — called "brood bearing." When temperatures dropped in January, Fischer said, the bees died.

"It's been a very unusual year, this last year," he said. The honeybee briefing came amid national worries about widespread die-offs of the insects that are crucial to agriculture.

Honeybees pollinate many flowering crops, from broccoli to berries, but they've been dying off in at least 27 states for reasons scientists don't understand.

Federal agriculture officials have called the phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, and the biggest threat to America's food supply. In Maryland, though, commercial colonies have been spared the disorder.

"I have found no colonies in the state of Maryland lost because of CCD," Fischer said. Susan Hays, whose family runs Hays Apiaries in Frederick County, said weather was her problem in the last year.

The warm December days led to brooding, then when the weather turned, the bees would remain sitting on the broods instead of getting food — even if the honey was just inches away.

"They just froze or starved to death," said Hays, who estimated she lost 10 percent to 15 percent of her 2,000 colonies last winter.

Her family sends honeybees as far as California, carried by refrigerated trucks, to pollinate almond crops. The apiary also ships bees to mid-Atlantic area fields to pollinate cucumbers, watermelons and apples.

Maryland only has three large commercial beekeepers such as the Hays family. The majority of Maryland's 1,312 registered beekeepers are hobbyists with a colony or two in the backyard, and they're more susceptible to bad weather.

"I had about 80 percent losses over the winter," said Carl Kahkones, owner of 35 hives at South Mountain Apiaries in Boonsboro. Kahkones is a small-scale honey producer and sells to farmers' markets.

Even though honey isn't his main source of income, he thinks more work needs to be done to research Colony Collapse Disorder and honeybees.

"We owe it to ourselves as a country to really think about it, because they are important," Kahkones said.

Fischer said most Maryland farmers rely on wild honeybees for pollination, but there's still a need for more beekeepers.

In 1985, he said, there were 2,120 registered beekeepers — a decline of 38 percent from 1985 to 2006, the most recent year for which numbers were available.

"We need beekeepers in Maryland," he said. "We have to rely on our hobbyists, so we have to promote beekeeping, because commercial beekeepers do not come to Maryland."

Yahoo News 15 Jun 07
Scientists examine cause of bee die-off
By GENARO C. ARMAS, Associated Press Writer

Scientists investigating a mysterious ailment that killed many of the nation's honeybees are concentrating on pesticides and a new pathogen as possible culprits, and some beekeepers are already trying to keep their colonies away from pesticide-exposed fields.

After months of study, researchers are finding it difficult to tie the die-off to any single factor, said Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate in Penn State University's entomology department.

"Two things right now ... that are really keeping us focused are the pathogen and the role of pesticides," Frazier said.

Scientists from Penn State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are leading the research into colony-collapse disorder, including study of the yet-to-be identified pathogen, a microorganism capable of causing disease.

But commercial beekeeper David Hackenberg isn't waiting to take action. He's asking growers whether they use pesticides on fields before bringing his bees for pollination.

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 tasty flowering crops, including apples, nuts and citrus fruit.

Hackenberg, 58, trucks his bees around the country for pollination — from oranges in Florida to blueberries in Maine. He was the first beekeeper to report the disorder to Penn State researchers last fall, having lost nearly 75 percent of his 3,200 colonies.

He said he is convinced pesticides, and in particular a kind of pesticide called neonicotinoids, were harming his bees.

"I'm quizzing every farmer around," Hackenberg said. "If you're going to use that stuff, then you're going to have go to somebody else." The beekeeper of 45 years is back up 2,400 colonies and doesn't want to lose his bees again.

He and his son, Davey Hackenberg, who operate Hackenberg Apiaries, are considering raising prices to cover the cost of replacing hives that may die off because of colony collapse.

They charge about $90 a hive now to "lease" their bees in fields; it costs $120 to replace a hive with new bees, the Hackenbergs said.

Beekeeper Jim Aucker, of Millville, was left with just 240 of his 1,200 hives earlier this spring after the illness struck. He said he's back up to just under 600 now. He is convinced pesticides are playing a role.

"I have found spray materials in our dead hives. Whether it's 100 percent the cause, I'm not sure, but I'm positive it's not helping," Aucker said. He doesn't plan to return to fields where he thinks there might be a pesticide problem.

Daniel Weaver, president of the American Beekeeping Federation, said he wasn't surprised some beekeepers were staying away from fields with insecticides.

"I try to limit my association to growers that I know will be responsible bending over backward and to go out of their way to avoid pesticide application while the bees are flying," he said of his own colonies. "Of course, I can't escape it completely."

He also cautioned what other scientists have echoed — that bees' immune systems might be weakened and vulnerable for reasons besides pathogens and pesticides, such as mites.

Bayer Crop Science is one of the top producers of the neonicotinoid pesticides in the country, and the product has been on the market since 1994.

"We have done a significant amount of research on our products, and we are comfortable this it is not the cause," said company spokesman John Boyne, an entomologist by training.

"The current research indicates that a number of nonchemical causes may be to blame," Boyne said when asked beekeepers' concerns regarding pesticides. Bayer is cooperating with federal and university scientists.

Some of the neonicotinic pesticides are available in stores to homeowners, though some bottles may not have the same warning labels as those available commercially, researchers and beekeepers said.

Bayer officials said they were not aware of the issue but were looking into it.

Some beekeepers worry fruit and vegetable growers may be spraying pesticides in ways other than the directions on labels, said University of Montana bee expert Jerry Bromenshenk.

His survey of beekeepers found instances of colony collapse in about 35 states. Reports are across the board as of mid-June, a time when bee colonies are supposed to be thriving.

Some beekeepers have said they are losing bees, while others are holding steady or growing colonies again.

Hackenberg said he went to the extreme of trying to disinfect many of his hives with radiation. But he fears what might happen if his bees get struck again.

A call came in on his cell phone as he worked with a thriving hive of honeybees on a hill above his house — a caller was trying to line up bees for 2008.

"Yeah, we sell bees," Hackenberg said, "if we're still in business next year."

PlanetArk 7 Sep 07
Newly Discovered Virus May be Killing Bees - Study
Story by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON - A newly discovered virus may be killing bees or may be making some bees vulnerable enough to disappear, US researchers reported on Thursday.

While the virus probably does not alone account for what scientists call colony collapse disorder, or CCD, it could help explain what is happening to bees across the United States, they said.

The virus, called Israeli acute paralysis virus, or IAPV, was discovered in Israel in 2004 and is new to science. CCD hit an estimated 23 percent of all beekeeping operations in the United States during the winter of 2006-7. "These beekeepers lost an average of 45 percent of their operations," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

Beekeepers do not find bees dead -- they simply find the hives nearly empty, with the queens alone and workers gone. Honeybees originally imported from Europe are used to pollinate US$14.6 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other US crops annually. Bees also have disappeared from hives in Brazil and across Europe.

A team led by Dr. Ian Lipkin, an expert in the spread of infectious diseases at Columbia University in New York, ground up bee samples from across the United States and compared them to non-affected bees from Pennsylvania and Hawaii.

They also looked at bees imported from Australia and samples of a bee product called royal jelly from China. They then sequenced the genomes -- the entire collection of DNA -- and looked for genes from bacteria, viruses and parasites. They found five major bacterial groups, four lineages of fungi and seven types of viruses.

LOADED WITH VIRUSES

"We found a remarkably high viral burden in bee populations -- both those that have CCD and not," biologist Edward Holmes of Pennsylvania State University told reporters in a telephone briefing. Only one was always associated with CCD -- IAPV.

"Whether it is a causative agent or a very good marker is the next major question that we need to address," said Diana Cox-Foster, an entomology professor at Penn State.

A marker might mean that something else that was making the bees disappear also helped them become infected with the virus.

Jeffery Pettis of the US Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory in Maryland said IAPV was only one of several leads that must still be followed.

"I hope no one goes away with the idea that we have actually solved the problem," Pettis told the briefing. "I still believe that multiple factors must be involved in CCD."

Perhaps interactions among parasites, viruses and nutrition could be involve, he said. IAPV can by transmitted by the varroa mite, a parasite known to affect US bees. Lipkin said in a telephone interview the next step is to infect healthy bees with IAPV and see if their colonies then collapse, as seen in CCD.

Cox-Foster said the team was also looking at other possible causes of CCD, although some leads were being pursued more urgently than others.

"We have very little evidence that the radiation from cellphones could impact bees," she said. She said tests also have shown that genetically modified crops have no ill effects on bees, although chemical pesticides could be adding stress.

As for why the bees disappear, Cox-Foster said they may deliberately avoid returning to the hive when they begin to feel ill, perhaps to protect their sisters and the queen.
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