Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Conclusion: What We Learned from Colony Collapse Disorder
Beginning in late 2006, commercial beekeepers from the United States and other parts
of the world reported that there was a mysterious loss of honey bees from their colonies.
Over a few short days, nearly all the bees in a hive would simply disappear with only
young bees, plus the queen remaining. Several frames of viable brood remained, mostly
capped. The colonies, it seemed, just collapsed.
Soon honey bee scientists from Penn State, the USDA, the University of Montana,
and others began to examine and debate the causes. Patterns and symptoms emerged. By
far the majority of beekeepers reporting these symptoms were commercial beekeepers
with thousands of colonies, and many of them kept migratory pollinators. (The rest had
smaller, less mobile operations.)
An unexplained symptom was that, unlike normally, when a colony perishes, bee hive
scavengers (such as wax moths, hive beetles, and mice) move in and consume any re-
maining comb, honey, wax, or dead bees. But scavengers did not take advantage of these
hives until weeks after the colony collapsed. Alarmingly, even new bees (from a pack-
age) installed in these colonies did not thrive, and also collapsed.
With the USDA involved, congressional hearings were held, money promised, and
action initiated to study Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. University scientists, with
help from the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab, organized their research projects so that
duplication of efforts would be minimized, and new findings shared.
Two goals needed to be met. First, scientists needed to know how many colonies
there were before they could determine how many had collapsed. Second, of the existing
colonies, scientists had to determine how many had died during the winter of the survey,
and what they died of. The survey was ill-timed, so not all factors were sufficiently doc-
umented. Nevertheless, a count was made, a report released, and the media finally had
fodder for their stories.
The findings published were that more than 30 percent of the bees in the United States
perished in the winter of 2007, and about a third of those died due to a malady similar to
those of CCD—in short, 10 percent of the bees lost to one mysterious ailment.
The theories about the causes ran from outlandish to just plain wrong; cell phone
signals, genetically manipulated crops, the Rapture, natural toxins, abuse of agricultural
pesticides, and aliens were blamed. The media had more to write about, and the scientists
spent precious time debunking the rumored causes.
Shortly after the results of that first winter's survey were released early findings from
the ongoing research began surfacing. First, the journal
Science
published a report of a
new virus being strongly associated with colonies that had succumbed to CCD. It made
world headlines, but it wasn't the final answer.
