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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleId=E0E0362F-E7F2-99DF-3F4F781839D6C879&chanId=sa003">http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleId=E0E0362F-E7F2-99DF-3F4F781839D6C879&chanId=sa003</a><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'>Scientific American<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'>September 07, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><img border=0 width=14 height=1 id="_x0000_i1122"
src="cid:image004.gif@01C7F45A.DF23D550"><img border=0 width=1 height=5
id="_x0000_i1123" src="cid:image005.gif@01C7F45A.DF23D550"><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'>Mysterious Honeybee Disappearance
Linked to Rare Virus</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><img border=0 width=14 height=1 id="_x0000_i1124"
src="cid:image004.gif@01C7F45A.DF23D550"><img border=0 width=1 height=5
id="_x0000_i1125" src="cid:image005.gif@01C7F45A.DF23D550"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Researchers isolate possible cause of "colony collapse
disorder" but stress that other explanations are still in play<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><img border=0 width=14 height=1 id="_x0000_i1126"
src="cid:image004.gif@01C7F45A.DF23D550"><img border=0 width=1 height=5
id="_x0000_i1127" src="cid:image005.gif@01C7F45A.DF23D550"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The mystery illness that has bedeviled <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>
beekeepers since 2006 may stem from a bee virus that apparently spread to the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region> three years ago,
according to a new study that marks the first big break in the puzzling case of
the disappearing bees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Researchers
performed a sophisticated genetic comparison of healthy and diseased U.S.
colonies that revealed the presence of Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), an
obscure but lethal bee bug, in almost all beekeeping operations affected by
"colony collapse disorder" (CCD), but in only a single healthy one
they examined. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
haven't proven this is the cause. It is a candidate for being a trigger for
CCD," says W. Ian Lipkin, director of the center for infection and
immunology at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Columbia</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>'s Mailman
School of Public Health, one of the study's lead members. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
disorder may also result from a combination of poor nutrition, pesticides and
other factors, including infection, Lipkin and his colleagues say. They add
that time-consuming tests are needed to determine whether IAPV can trigger CCD
alone or in concert with other stressors, or whether certain combinations of
stressors instead make hives vulnerable to the virus. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Israeli
virologists discovered IAPV three years ago after investigating unexplained
cases of dead bees piled in front of hives. The new study found the virus in
samples of Australian bees, which were first imported to the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> three
years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>If IAPV
is the main trigger, researchers say, honeybees worldwide could be bred with
strains of bees resistant to the virus, perhaps rescuing our nation's most
economically valuable pollinator. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Bees are
estimated to provide pollination valued at $15 billion every year and are
already worked to the limit. Half of the nearly 2.5 million hives in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> alone are
needed to pollinate almond crops. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Late last
year, reports surfaced that adult honeybees were mysteriously abandoning
commercial colonies, leaving ghost hives full of honey, larvae and unattended
queens. The disorder wiped out an average of 45 percent of bees among the 23
percent of commercial <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
beekeepers affected last winter. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Researchers
and conspiracy theorists have offered a number of potential explanations, from
parasitic varroa mites to chemical pesticides to cell phone radiation that
leads bees astray. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Entomologists
Diana Cox-Foster of <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>
and Jeffery Pettis of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural
Research Service Bee Research Laboratory formed the Colony Collapse Disorder
Working Group to try to solve the mystery. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A key
line of evidence suggested that infection plays a major role: The group found
they could restore empty CCD hives to health by restocking them with fresh
bees—but only if they first irradiated the hives with gamma rays, which
destroy DNA. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Based on
that evidence, Cox-Foster and Pettis convinced Lipkin, who led the discovery of
West Nile virus, to take up the case, using specialized technology manufactured
by genome sequencing firm 454 Life Sciences in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Branford</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Conn.</st1:State></st1:place>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The trio
and their colleagues lumped together RNA—the chemical that encodes active
genes—from four geographically separated commercial operations stricken
with CCD and compared it with the combined RNA of apparently healthy bees from <st1:State
w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:State> and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:place></st1:State>.
They also scanned seemingly healthy bees from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>
and imported royal jelly from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
which queen bees use to nourish young workers. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Overall,
CCD bees carried more types of harmful microorganisms than healthy bees, the
researchers report in the online edition of <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Science</span></i>.
To identify potential culprits, they analyzed individual hives. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>IAPV
showed up in 25 of 30 diseased operations but in only one healthy colony from
the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
they report. In contrast, all CCD hives contained a related virus called KBV
along with a single-celled parasite <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Nosema
ceranae,</span></i> which a prior study had linked with CCD—but both
organisms were present in about 80 percent of the healthy hives, too. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
paper is a model of careful investigation," says entomologist Gene
Robinson, director of 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> at
Urbana-Champaign's bee research facility, who was not involved in the study.
IAPV seems to be either a cause of or a marker for the disease, he says.
"Either way, it's the first big breakthrough in the CCD story, so it's
very exciting and very encouraging." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
smoking gun, Lipkin says, would be to infect healthy or stressed bees with IAPV
and see if they catch CCD. The researchers plan to carry out such tests, but
isolating the virus is challenging, he adds. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A broader
sampling of diseased and healthy colonies from around the world would also help
narrow down what causes the disease, Robinson says. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Lipkin
and co-workers found that seemingly healthy Australian bees were infected with
the virus and point out that all of the CCD hives they examined included or
spent time near imported Australian bees. Beekeepers from Down Under have
reported a "disappearing disease" but not on the scale of CCD, Pettis
said during a press conference Wednesday. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>One
difference, he said, could be parasitic varroa mites, which suppress bees'
immune systems and have driven down the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>
bee population by 30 percent in the last 25 years, but are not found in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
"We know it's a primary stressor," he added. "I still believe
that multiple factors are involved in CCD and we must test [them] in a more
rigorous fashion." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
researchers only found varroa mites in half of the diseased <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> hives.
They note, however, that it is possible a mite-killing chemical applied by
beekeepers may have killed the parasites off after they did their damage, or
the chemical itself could have harmed the bees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>IAPV
seems to have first killed bees in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> in 2002, and since then has
caused a varying number of deaths each year, says plant virologist Ilan Sela of
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, whose group identified the virus, which
causes dying bees' wings to shiver. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I
was told by the Israeli [beekeeping] extension people that there are some
recent indications for a small-scale CCD-like phenomenon in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>,"
he says, adding that he has yet to test the afflicted bees for the virus. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>If IAPV
is causing CCD, there is hope of stopping its spread. About 30 percent of the
bees Sela examined have incorporated pieces of the IAPV genome into their
chromosomes and are resistant to the virus. Other bees could be bred to carry
those fragments and presumably survive infection, too, he says. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But he
cautions that IAPV could in theory be causing CCD by inserting its genetic
material into bee genes for pheromones or other molecules that coordinate hive
behavior, thereby disrupting those genes, a possibility that he and the CCD
working group plan to test. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Until
researchers have cracked the CCD mystery, Cox-Foster advised beekeepers
Wednesday to keep their bees well fed and free of mites. <img border=0 width=1
height=20 id="_x0000_i1137" src="cid:image006.gif@01C7F45A.DF23D550"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>© 1996-2007 Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.<br>
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.<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 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>
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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=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><o:p></o:p></p>
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