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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/04/national/main2646409.shtml<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>What's Happening To The Bees?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>April 4, 2007</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>(Christian
Science Monitor) </span></font></b><i><span style='font-style:italic'>This
article was written by <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Moises
Velasquez-Manoff</span></b>.</span></i> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
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Beekeeper James Doan first began finding empty hives last fall. Entire bee
colonies seemed to have up and vanished, leaving their honey behind. Noting the
unusually wet fall in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Hamlin</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">N.Y.</st1:State></st1:place>, he blamed the weather.
Unable to forage in the rain, the bees probably starved, he reasoned. <br>
<br>
But when deserted hives began appearing daily, "we knew it was something
different," he says. Now, at the beginning of the 2007 pollination season,
more than half of his 4,300 hives are gone. "I'm just about ready to give
up," says Doan from his honeybee wintering site in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Ft. Meade</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Fla.</st1:State></st1:place>
"I'm not sure I can survive." <br>
<br>
The cause of the die-offs has yet to be determined. Its effect on the food
supply may be significant. Longer-term, it may also force a rethinking of some
agricultural practices including our heavy reliance on human-managed bees for
pollination. <br>
<br>
Scientists call it "colony collapse disorder" (CCD). First reported
in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:State>
last fall, the problem has since spread to 24 states. Commercial beekeepers are
reporting losses of between 50 and 90 percent, an unprecedented amount even for
an industry accustomed to die-offs. <br>
<br>
Many worry that what's shaping up to be a honeybee catastrophe will disrupt the
food supply. While staple crops like wheat and corn are pollinated by wind,
some 90 cultivated flowering crops – from almonds and apples to
cranberries and watermelons – rely heavily on honeybees trucked in for
pollinization. Honeybees pollinate every third bite of food ingested by
Americans, says a Cornell study. Bees help generate some $14 billion in
produce. <br>
<br>
Research is only beginning and hard data is still lacking, but beekeepers suspect
everything from a new virus or parasite to pesticides and genetically modified
crops. Scientists have hastily established a CCD working group at <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Agriculture held
hearings on the missing bees. <br>
<br>
For many entomologists, the bee crisis is a wake-up call. By relying on a
single species for pollination, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
agriculture has put itself in a precarious position, they say. A resilient
agricultural system requires diverse pollinators. This speaks to a larger
conservation issue. Some evidence indicates a decline in the estimated 4,500
potential alternate pollinators – native species of butterflies, wasps.
and other bees. The blame for that sits squarely on human activity – habitat
loss, pesticide use, and imported disease – but much of this could be
offset by different land-use practices. <br>
<br>
Moving away from monoculture, say scientists, and having something always
flowering within bee-distance, would help natural pollinators. This would make
crops less dependent on trucked-in bees, which have proved to be vulnerable to
die-offs. <br>
<br>
The stress on honeybees grew as native and wild pollinators diminished and
farmers came to rely more on honeybees. We've put "all of our pollination eggs
in the honeybee basket," says Mace Vaughan, conservation director of the
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Portland</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Ore.</st1:State></st1:place>
"We need more baskets." <br>
<br>
An immune-system disorder? <br>
<br>
Meanwhile, beekeepers are seeing hives empty in a matter of weeks, sometimes
days. The entire adult bee population vanishes, except for a few juveniles.
This makes CCD difficult to study. "You have a crime scene, you know a
crime happened here, but you don't really have evidence," says Medhat
Nasr, provincial apiculturalist in <st1:State w:st="on">Alberta</st1:State>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Eerily,
the stored honey in the hive remains untouched. Raiding bees from nearby
colonies never materialize, as is common. <br>
<br>
Records of suddenly empty hives go back as far as the late 1800s, but never on
this scale. Beekeepers dubbed it "autumn collapse," "spring
dwindle," or "disappearing disease." But Dennis vanEngelsdorp,
the acting <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Penn</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> apiarist, calls this manifestation
the AIDS of bees. The remaining juvenile bees appear to be rife with disease.
To him, "It's clear that there is an immune suppression," he says. <br>
<br>
What might suppress a bee's immune system is anyone's guess. But many ascribe
to a tipping-point theory: A variety of factors may have accumulated until a
single straw finally broke the bee's back. <br>
<br>
<pgbr>A review of honeybee history shows many suspects. The Varroa mite, native
to Asia, came to <st1:place w:st="on">North America</st1:place> in the late
1980s. Since then, yearly losses of between 15 and 20 percent have become the
norm. "Before the mites, you could be a bee-have-er," says vanEngelsdorp.
"Now you have to be a bee-keep-er." <br>
<br>
Beekeepers are the first to acknowledge the stress of migratory pollination.
Carted on flatbed trucks from wintering sites in the South, the bees crisscross
the continent, first to California's almond groves, which rely entirely on
honeybees for pollination, and then northward throughout the country, following
the spring flowering season. Farmers have come to rely increasingly on honeybee
services, says May Berenbaum, head of the department of entomology at the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Illinois</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>, Urbana-Champaign. "Given
its economic importance, beekeeping really hasn't gotten the attention it
deserves," she says. <br>
<br>
Poor nutrition may be another factor, says <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Vaughan</st1:place></st1:City>. To prepare them for winter, bees are
fed high-fructose corn syrup and protein supplements. In the fields they've
pollinated, meanwhile, more often than not they've gathered only one kind of
pollen. Maybe, like other animals, they need a diverse diet, he says. "If
you only ate McDonald's every day, you'd be just like that guy in 'Super Size
Me,' " he says. "And he didn't feel that good." <br>
Others, like Doan, suspect pesticides. <br>
<br>
Similar problem in 1990s <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>
<br>
<br>
In the 1990s, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>
experienced a precipitous honeybee decline from "mad bee disease."
Honey production dropped by nearly one-third, to 25,000 tons. French beekeepers
blamed a newly introduced pesticide marketed under the name Gaucho. From the
same family as nicotine, the chemical targeted aphids' navigational systems.
And when the honeybees weren't finding their way home, either, French
beekeepers protested. The French government banned the product in 1999. Though
subsequent studies haven't found a strong link, bee populations still haven't
rebounded to previous levels. <br>
<br>
Others point to genetically modified crops – specifically, those with a
gene for a bacterial toxin called Bt. Initial studies indicated that it didn't
affect bees. But some beekeepers argue the trials didn't last long enough to
determine the long-term effects. (Doan says the same about the nicotinelike
pesticides.) A German study supports this. Scientists at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Jena</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>
found that while Bt food had no direct effect on bees, when fed to bee
populations infected with parasites, they quickly became diseased. Alone, Bt
may do nothing. But in the presence of a parasite, it may facilitate infection.
<br>
<br>
"Maybe these toxins weaken the immune system," says John McDonald, a
retired biologist and hobby apiculturalist in Spring Mills, Pa., who wrote an
editorial on the topic for the San Francisco Chronicle <br>
<br>
But the shrinking of our so-called "pollination portfolio" is of more
concern to many entomologists than a die-off in commercial beehives. A 2006
National Academy of Sciences report declared that there was "direct
evidence for decline of some pollinator species in <st1:place w:st="on">North
America</st1:place>" – species responsible for pollinating
three-quarters of flowering plants. Europeans have documented a parallel
decline in their natural pollinators for years. <br>
<br>
On the U.S. East Coast, where a more ecologically diverse farming landscape
enhances species diversity, studies have shown that wild pollinators were doing
about 90 percent of the pollinating anyway, says Neal Williams, an assistant
professor of biology at <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Bryn</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Mawr</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">College</st1:PlaceType>
in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:place></st1:State>.
"It seems a little bit silly from a whole-country perspective, even from a
farmer perspective, that we would place so much emphasis on one species. We
don't do that with any other part of the economy," he says. <br>
<br>
Meanwhile, a Canadian study suggests that if canola farmers leave 30 percent of
their land fallow, they will increase their yields. Wild land provides habitat
for native pollinators, improving pollination and increasing the number of
seeds. "If we cultivate all the land, we lose ecosystem services like
pollination," says Lora Morandin, lead author on the study. "Healthy,
sustainable agricultural systems need to include natural land." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</pgbr>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
<br>
</span></font><font size=1 face=Arial><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:
Arial'>© 2007 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.</span></font><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 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>
<a href="http://coevolution.org">Coevolution Institute</a><br>
<st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">423 Washington St.</st1:address></st1:Street>
5th Fl.<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">CA</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94111-2339</st1:PostalCode></st1:place><br>
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=2 color="#004000" face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.nappc.org">www.nappc.org</a></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'><a
href="http://www.pollinator.org">www.pollinator.org</a></span></font><font
color="#004000"><span style='color:#004000'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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