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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=/n/a/2007/05/02/national/a110745D58.DTL<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Bees and
Our Diet on the Brink<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=byline><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Wednesday,
May 2, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><span
id=articlebody>(05-02) 11:07 PDT Beltsville, Md. (AP) -- <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Unless
someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out
many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's
dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Honeybees
don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering
crops we have.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Among
them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and
cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus
fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries,
cantaloupe and other melons.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In fact,
about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the
honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Even
cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we
could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett,
the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"This
is the biggest general threat to our food supply," Hackett said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>While not
all scientists foresee a food crisis, noting that large-scale bee die-offs have
happened before, this one seems particularly baffling and alarming.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>U.S.</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region>
beekeepers in the past few months have lost one-quarter of their colonies
— or about five times the normal winter losses — because of what
scientists have dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder. The problem started in
November and seems to have spread to 27 states, with similar collapses reported
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> and parts of <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Scientists
are struggling to figure out what is killing the honeybees, and early results
of a key study this week point to some kind of disease or parasite.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Even
before this disorder struck, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
honeybees were in trouble. Their numbers were steadily shrinking, because their
genes do not equip them to fight poisons and disease very well, and because
their gregarious nature exposes them to ailments that afflict thousands of
their close cousins.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Quite
frankly, the question is whether the bees can weather this perfect storm,"
Hackett said. "Do they have the resilience to bounce back? We'll know
probably by the end of the summer."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Experts
from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region> and Europe have
joined in the detective work at USDA's bee lab in suburban <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>. In recent weeks, Hackett briefed
Vice President Cheney's office on the problem. Congress has held hearings on
the matter.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"This
crisis threatens to wipe out production of crops dependent on bees for
pollination," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a statement.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A
congressional study said honeybees add about $15 billion a year in value to our
food supply.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Of the
17,000 species of bees that scientists know about, "honeybees are, for
many reasons, the pollinator of choice for most North American crops," a
National Academy of Sciences study said last year. They pollinate many types of
plants, repeatedly visit the same plant, and recruit other honeybees to visit,
too.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Pulitzer
Prize-winning insect biologist E.O. Wilson of Harvard said the honeybee is
nature's "workhorse — and we took it for granted."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We've
hung our own future on a thread," Wilson, author of the book "The
Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," told The Associated Press on
Monday.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Beginning
this past fall, beekeepers would open up their hives and find no workers, just
newborn bees and the queen. Unlike past bee die-offs, where dead bees would be
found near the hive, this time they just disappeared. The die-off takes just
one to three weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>USDA's
top bee scientist, Jeff Pettis, who is coordinating the detective work on this
die-off, has more suspected causes than time, people and money to look into
them.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The top
suspects are a parasite, an unknown virus, some kind of bacteria, pesticides,
or a one-two combination of the top four, with one weakening the honeybee and the
second killing it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A quick
experiment with some of the devastated hives makes pesticides seem less likely.
In the recent experiment, Pettis and colleagues irradiated some hard-hit hives
and reintroduced new bee colonies. More bees thrived in the irradiated hives
than in the non-irradiated ones, pointing toward some kind of disease or
parasite that was killed by radiation.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
parasite hypothesis has history and some new findings to give it a boost: A
mite practically wiped out the wild honeybee in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the 1990s. And another new
one-celled parasitic fungus was found last week in a tiny sample of dead bees
by <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">California San Francisco</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> molecular
biologist Joe DeRisi, who isolated the human SARS virus.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>However,
Pettis and others said while the parasite nosema ceranae may be a factor, it
cannot be the sole cause. The fungus has been seen before, sometimes in
colonies that were healthy.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Recently,
scientists have begun to wonder if mankind is too dependent on honeybees. The
scientific warning signs came in two reports last October.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>First,
the National Academy of Sciences said pollinators, especially <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
honeybee, were under threat of collapse because of a variety of factors.
Captive colonies in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United
States</st1:place></st1:country-region> shrank from 5.9 million in 1947 to
2.4 million in 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Then,
scientists finished mapping the honeybee genome and found that the insect did
not have the normal complement of genes that take poisons out of their systems
or many immune-disease-fighting genes. A fruitfly or a mosquito has twice the
number of genes to fight toxins, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Illinois</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> entomologist
May Berenbaum.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>What the
genome mapping revealed was "that honeybees may be peculiarly vulnerable
to disease and toxins," Berenbaum said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>University</span></font></st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Montana</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> bee expert
Jerry Bromenshenk has surveyed more than 500 beekeepers and found that 38
percent of them had losses of 75 percent or more. A few weeks back, Bromenshenk
was visiting <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
beekeepers and saw a hive that was thriving. Two days later, it had completely
collapsed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Yet
Bromenshenk said, "I'm not ready to panic yet." He said he doesn't
think a food crisis is looming.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Even
though experts this year gave what's happening a new name and think this is a
new type of die-off, it may have happened before.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bromenshenk
said cited die-offs in the 1960s and 1970s that sound somewhat the same. There
were reports of something like this in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> in spots in 2004,
Pettis said. And <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>
had something similar in 2004, said Peter Neumann, co-chairman of a 17-country
European research group studying the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
problem is that everyone wants a simple answer," Pettis said. "And it
may not be a simple answer."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>___<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>On the
Net:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Colony
Collapse Disorder Web page by the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and
Extension Consortium:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>National <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Academy</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Sciences</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> study on pollinators:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html"></a><a
href="http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html">maarec.cas.psu.edu/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id11761"></a><a
href="http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id11761">www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id11761</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</span>
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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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