Bee Colony Collapse Syndrome: Three Years Later, Still a Mystery

It's not just about honey, and it's not just about the 1/3 of your food that honeybees directly pollinate. The plants that feed the remaining 2/3 of your food need pollinating by bees as well. All wild plant and animal life depends on bees for the proper functioning of the ecosystem. Colony Collapse Disorder - the sudden and and unexplained disappearance of entire colonies of bees - is a serious matter.

In the United States, ninety percent of the feral bee population was wiped out by the varroa mite in the 1950's. Now commercial bees are disappearing as well, threatening the food supply of the entire nation. Since late 2006, beekeepers from around the world have been reporting the mysterious loss of entire colonies, some of them losing between 60-90% of their hives. The bees vanish without a trace, leaving their hives intact and full of honey. The abandoned hives remain untouched, the honey left alone by scavengers that would normally take advantage of such an opportunity. The bees leave their queens and brood behind as well. This is highly unusual behavior for bees which would normally never leave their queens unattended and unprotected. Although individual bees do leave the hive when they are ill so that they don't infect the entire colony, an evacuation of this scale has never been seen before, with hundreds of thousands of colonies going missing worldwide.

Colony Collapse Disorder has spurred action among scientists and researchers to try to isolate the cause, and they have come up with a myriad possible theories. These include pesticides, parasites, commercial pollination practices, cell phone radiation, and other ideas, none of which have been settled on as the absolute cause. The fact of the matter is that there are so many possible causes that no single one can be pointed to as the culprit of CCD. One particular pathogen that received much attention is Nosema ceranae, a microsporidian fungus. This theory was debunked when researchers found that the fungus was already present in 80% of hives that continue to thrive. Therefore, while it could be a contributing factor, it is unlikely that Nosema ceranae is the root cause of CCD. Another theory being researched is the Israel Acute Paralysis Virus, or IAPV, which is spread by the varroa mite. But because not all CCD hives were infested with mites, scientists still maintain that the presence of this virus in the hives of a few countries cannot account for the decline of the bee population around the globe. What we are dealing with is the failure of the bees' immune systems, which leaves them vulnerable to a barrage of normally occurring pathogens.

I believe it is time for scientists to accept that there is no easy answer to this question, because the cause does not lie in a single isolated cause. Our agricultural and environmental practices, or rather, malpractices, have weakened the bees' ability to withstand the toxic insults to their immunity. This problem will not go away until we change the ways that we interact with our environment, and any artificial attempts to remedy the issue will only make things worse in the long run. But we can all do our small part to help. We can grow gardens and food forests, giving bees the opportunity to gather the nectar of responsibly grown plants rather than nutritionless monocrops. We can grow flowers. They will not only serve to help the bees' cause, but they make our world more beautiful as well.

Source:
Author/Artist - PBS Nature
Page Title - The Silence of the Bees
Site Title - www.pbs.org

Author/Artist - Wikipedia
Page Title - Colony Collapse Disorder
Site Title - www.wikipedia.org