<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="4"><B><A HREF="javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/04/23/science/24bees.graphic.html', '613_419', 'width=613,height=419,location=no,scrollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes')">Disappearing Bees</A></B></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
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LINK WITH PHOTOS:<BR>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/science/24bees.html?th&emc=th</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
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By</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/alexei_barrionuevo/index.html?inline=nyt-per"> ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
Published: April 24, 2007<BR>
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BELTSVILLE, Md., April 23 — What is happening to the bees?</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/science/24bees.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin#secondParagraph"> </A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
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More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.<BR>
As with any great mystery, a number of theories have been posed, and many seem to researchers to be more science fiction than science. People have blamed genetically modified crops, cellular phone towers and high-voltage transmission lines for the disappearances. Or was it a secret plot by Russia or</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/osama_bin_laden/index.html?inline=nyt-per"> Osama bin Laden</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"> to bring down American agriculture? Or, as some blogs have asserted, the rapture of the bees, in which God recalled them to heaven? Researchers have heard it all.<BR>
The volume of theories “is totally mind-boggling,” said Diana Cox-Foster, an entomologist at</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/p/pennsylvania_state_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org"> Pennsylvania State University</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">. With Jeffrey S. Pettis, an entomologist from the</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/agriculture_department/index.html?inline=nyt-org"> United States Department of Agriculture</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">, Dr. Cox-Foster is leading a team of researchers who are trying to find answers to explain “colony collapse disorder,” the name given for the disappearing bee syndrome.<BR>
“Clearly there is an urgency to solve this,” Dr. Cox-Foster said. “We are trying to move as quickly as we can.”<BR>
Dr. Cox-Foster and fellow scientists who are here at a two-day meeting to discuss early findings and future plans with government officials have been focusing on the most likely suspects: a virus, a fungus or a pesticide.<BR>
About 60 researchers from North America sifted the possibilities at the meeting today. Some expressed concern about the speed at which adult bees are disappearing from their hives; some colonies have collapsed in as little as two days. Others noted that countries in Europe, as well as Guatemala and parts of Brazil, are also struggling for answers.<BR>
“There are losses around the world that may or not be linked,” Dr. Pettis said.<BR>
The investigation is now entering a critical phase. The researchers have collected samples in several states and have begun doing bee autopsies and genetic analysis.<BR>
So far, known enemies of the bee world, like the varroa mite, on their own at least, do not appear to be responsible for the unusually high losses.<BR>
Genetic testing at</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/columbia_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org"> Columbia University</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"> has revealed the presence of multiple micro-organisms in bees from hives or colonies that are in decline, suggesting that something is weakening their immune system. The researchers have found some fungi in the affected bees that are found in humans whose immune systems have been suppressed by the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/cancer/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"> cancer</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">.<BR>
“That is extremely unusual,” Dr. Cox-Foster said.<BR>
Meanwhile, samples were sent to an Agriculture Department laboratory in North Carolina this month to screen for 117 chemicals. Particular suspicion falls on a pesticide that France banned out of concern that it may have been decimating bee colonies. Concern has also mounted among public officials.<BR>
“There are so many of our crops that require pollinators,” said Representative Dennis Cardoza, a California Democrat whose district includes that state’s central agricultural valley, and who presided last month at a Congressional hearing on the bee issue. “We need an urgent call to arms to try to ascertain what is really going on here with the bees, and bring as much science as we possibly can to bear on the problem.”<BR>
So far, colony collapse disorder has been found in 27 states, according to Bee Alert Technology Inc., a company monitoring the problem. A recent survey of 13 states by the Apiary Inspectors of America showed that 26 percent of beekeepers had lost half of their bee colonies between September and March.<BR>
Honeybees are arguably the insects that are most important to the human food chain. They are the principal pollinators of hundreds of fruits, vegetables, flowers and nuts. The number of bee colonies has been declining since the 1940s, even as the crops that rely on them, such as California almonds, have grown. In October, at about the time that beekeepers were experiencing huge bee losses, a study by the</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_academy_of_sciences/index.html?inline=nyt-org"> National Academy of Sciences</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"> questioned whether American agriculture was relying too heavily on one type of pollinator, the honeybee.<BR>
Bee colonies have been under stress in recent years as more beekeepers have resorted to crisscrossing the country with 18-wheel trucks full of bees in search of pollination work. These bees may suffer from a</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/diet/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"> diet</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"> that includes artificial supplements, concoctions akin to energy drinks and power bars. In several states, suburban sprawl has limited the bees’ natural forage areas.<BR>
So far, the researchers have discounted the possibility that poor diet alone could be responsible for the widespread losses. They have also set aside for now the possibility that the cause could be bees feeding from a commonly used genetically modified crop, Bt corn, because the symptoms typically associated with toxins, such as blood poisoning, are not showing up in the affected bees. But researchers emphasized today that feeding supplements produced from genetically modified crops, such as high-fructose corn syrup, need to be studied.<BR>
The scientists say that definitive answers for the colony collapses could be months away. But recent advances in biology and genetic sequencing are speeding the search.<BR>
Computers can decipher information from</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/geneticsandheredity/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"> DNA</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"> and match pieces of genetic code with particular organisms. Luckily, a project to sequence some 11,000 genes of the honeybee was completed late last year at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, giving scientists a huge head start on identifying any unknown pathogens in the bee tissue.<BR>
“Otherwise, we would be looking for the needle in the haystack,” Dr. Cox-Foster said.<BR>
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