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Pathogen causing bee blight?
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
Globe and Mail Update
September 6, 2007 at 4:38 PM EDT
The sudden and mysterious disappearance of honeybees in the United States over the past year may be due to a virus, according to a new research paper by an international team of scientists.
The pathogen, called Israeli acute paralysis virus, has been detected in almost all bee hives tested in survey of those afflicted by what has become known as colony collapse disorder, but it is rarely found in healthy hives.
The discovery will likely help put to rest rampant speculation about the source of the strange collapse in U.S. bee populations.
U.S. bee keepers began noticing slight declines in bee numbers in 2004, although the scale of deaths increased dramatically in the past year, with some apiaries losing up to 90 per cent of their hives. These were baffling die offs in which the workers in colonies of the highly social insects would disappear without a trace.
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Any threat to bee numbers could therefore affect the global food supply. An estimated $2-billion worth of crops in Canada depend on honeybees for pollination, and about $15-billion (U.S.) in the United States, where the collapse has already led to difficulties in pollinating crops.
The researchers also found the virus on bees imported into the United States from Australia and in royal jelly samples from China. Royal jelly is the food bees produce for queens, but it is also sold as a health food for humans.
The discovery of the virus has raised speculation that the United States inadvertently allowed it into the country through the import of Australian bees, a practice allowed in 2004 under pressure by the agricultural industry to boost the number of hives available for pollinating high value crops, such as almonds.
The import of the bees coincided with the first reports of unusual problems in bee colonies.
All the hives infected with the virus either used Australian bees or had been stored near colonies that imported the insects from Australia.
[...]
The virus was first described in Israel in 2004. Researchers there noted that infected bees – which exhibited shivering wings and paralysis – would die just outside their hives.
One perplexing finding is that bees in Australia do not seem to be affected by colony collapse disorder. The researchers speculated that the reason might be that bees there are not infected with varroa mites, which are found throughout North America. The mites are able to suppress the immune system of bees, making them more vulnerable to other threats.
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
Globe and Mail Update
September 6, 2007 at 4:38 PM EDT
The sudden and mysterious disappearance of honeybees in the United States over the past year may be due to a virus, according to a new research paper by an international team of scientists.
The pathogen, called Israeli acute paralysis virus, has been detected in almost all bee hives tested in survey of those afflicted by what has become known as colony collapse disorder, but it is rarely found in healthy hives.
The discovery will likely help put to rest rampant speculation about the source of the strange collapse in U.S. bee populations.
U.S. bee keepers began noticing slight declines in bee numbers in 2004, although the scale of deaths increased dramatically in the past year, with some apiaries losing up to 90 per cent of their hives. These were baffling die offs in which the workers in colonies of the highly social insects would disappear without a trace.
[...]
Any threat to bee numbers could therefore affect the global food supply. An estimated $2-billion worth of crops in Canada depend on honeybees for pollination, and about $15-billion (U.S.) in the United States, where the collapse has already led to difficulties in pollinating crops.
The researchers also found the virus on bees imported into the United States from Australia and in royal jelly samples from China. Royal jelly is the food bees produce for queens, but it is also sold as a health food for humans.
The discovery of the virus has raised speculation that the United States inadvertently allowed it into the country through the import of Australian bees, a practice allowed in 2004 under pressure by the agricultural industry to boost the number of hives available for pollinating high value crops, such as almonds.
The import of the bees coincided with the first reports of unusual problems in bee colonies.
All the hives infected with the virus either used Australian bees or had been stored near colonies that imported the insects from Australia.
[...]
The virus was first described in Israel in 2004. Researchers there noted that infected bees – which exhibited shivering wings and paralysis – would die just outside their hives.
One perplexing finding is that bees in Australia do not seem to be affected by colony collapse disorder. The researchers speculated that the reason might be that bees there are not infected with varroa mites, which are found throughout North America. The mites are able to suppress the immune system of bees, making them more vulnerable to other threats.
None of the US bees got sick after importing from Israel. They got it from Australia. Probably just like Israel did.
So instead of calling this the Austrialian Anti-American Bee Virus, everythng is once again blamed on Israel, which just happened to be the first victim of this evil Australian aggression
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