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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/10/HOG5FOH9VQ1.DTL<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=5 face=Arial><span style='font-size:16.0pt'>Could genetically
modified crops be killing bees?<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=byline><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>John McDonald, Special to The Chronicle<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Saturday,
March 10, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2007/03/10/HOG5FOH9VQ1.DTL&o=0&type=printable"><span
style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=64 height=64 id="_x0000_i1027"
src="cid:image001.gif@01C764A1.23B3B2C0" vspace=1
alt="Bees scurry over a honeycomb frame; beekeepers and biolog..."></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><span
id=articlebody>With reports coming in about a scourge affecting honeybees,
researchers are launching a drive to find the cause of the destruction. The
reasons for rapid colony collapse are not clear. Old diseases, parasites and
new diseases are being looked at. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Over the
past 100 or so years, beekeepers have experienced colony losses from bacterial
agents (foulbrood), mites (varroa and tracheal) and other parasites and
pathogens. Beekeepers have dealt with these problems by using antibiotics,
miticides or integrated pest management. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>While
losses, particularly in overwintering, are a chronic condition, most beekeepers
have learned to limit their losses by staying on top of new advice from
entomologists. Unlike the more common problems, this new die-off has been
virtually instantaneous throughout the country, not spreading at the slower
pace of conventional classical disease. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As an
interested beekeeper with some background in biology, I think it might be
fruitful to investigate the role of genetically modified or transgenic farm
crops. Although we are assured by nearly every bit of research that these
manipulations of the crop genome are safe for both human consumption and the
environment, looking more closely at what is involved here might raise
questions about those assumptions. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The most
commonly transplanted segment of transgenic DNA involves genes from a
well-known bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which has been used for
decades by farmers and gardeners to control butterflies that damage cole crops
such as cabbage and broccoli. Instead of the bacterial solution being sprayed
on the plant, where it is eaten by the target insect, the genes that contain
the insecticidal traits are incorporated into the genome of the farm crop. As
the transformed plant grows, these Bt genes are replicated along with the plant
genes so that each cell contains its own poison pill that kills the target
insect. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In the
case of field corn, these insects are stem- and root-borers, lepidopterans
(butterflies) that, in their larval stage, dine on some region of the corn
plant, ingesting the bacterial gene, which eventually causes a crystallization
effect in the guts of the borer larvae, thus killing them. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>What is
not generally known to the public is that Bt variants are available that also
target coleopterans (beetles) and dipterids (flies and mosquitoes). We are assured
that the bee family, hymenopterans, is not affected. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>That
there is Bt in beehives is not a question. Beekeepers spray Bt under hive lids
sometimes to control the wax moth, an insect whose larval forms produce messy
webs on honey. Canadian beekeepers have detected the disappearance of the wax
moth in untreated hives, apparently a result of worker bees foraging in fields
of transgenic canola plants. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bees
forage heavily on corn flowers to obtain pollen for the rearing of young
broods, and these pollen grains also contain the Bt gene of the parent plant,
because they are present in the cells from which pollen forms. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Is it not
possible that while there is no lethal effect directly to the new bees, there
might be some sublethal effect, such as immune suppression, acting as a slow
killer? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
planting of transgenic corn and soybean has increased exponentially, according
to statistics from farm states. Tens of millions of acres of transgenic crops
are allowing Bt genes to move off crop fields. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A quick
and easy way to get an approximate answer would be to make a comparison of
colony losses of bees from regions where no genetically modified crops are
grown, and to put test hives in areas where modern farming practices are so
distant from the hives that the foraging worker bees would have no exposure to
them. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Given
that nearly every bite of food that we eat has a pollinator, the seriousness of
this emerging problem could dwarf all previous food disruptions. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-style:italic'>John McDonald is a beekeeper in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:place></st1:State>. He welcomes comments or
questions about the bee problem at <a href="mailto:mcbee_77@yahoo.com">mcbee_77@yahoo.com</a>.
General comments to <a href="mailto:home@sfchronicle.com">home@sfchronicle.com</a>.</span></font></i>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</span>
<p id=url><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/10/HOG5FOH9VQ1.DTL<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p id=pageno><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>This
article appeared on page <strong><b><font face="Times New Roman">F - 4</font></b></strong>
of the San Francisco Chronicle<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'>Jennifer Tsang<br>
</span></font><a href="http://coevolution.org"><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Coevolution Institute</span></font></a><font
size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Verdana;color:#004000'><br>
<st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">423 Washington St.</st1:address></st1:Street>
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T: 415.362.1137</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'>F: 415.362.3070</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="http://www.nappc.org"><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>www.nappc.org</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a href="http://www.pollinator.org"><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>www.pollinator.org</span></font></a><font
color="#004000"><span style='color:#004000'><o:p></o:p></span></font></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
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