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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><a
href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/05/honeybees-getting-stung/?page=2">http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/05/honeybees-getting-stung/?page=2</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Researchers
seek 'super' bee cure for a deadly disorder<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 Wayne Anderson SPECIAL TO THE <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">WASHINGTON</st1:place></st1:State>
TIMES<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A team of
researchers from universities across the nation are urgently trying to develop
a strain of "super" honeybees to ward off a mysterious malady that
has been decimating <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
colonies for the past three years. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Scientists
continue to search for the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a malady
that has greatly reduced the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
bee population. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Over
the past three years on average, our surveys have said that we've lost about 30
percent of the (2.4 million) colonies nationwide," said Jeffery Pettis, a
lead bee researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Of that
figure, the government suspects 13 percent is because of CCD. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>With this
alarming rate, scientists are turning their attention to the bee itself. Their
plan is to create a new honeybee that is resistant to the disorder. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Honeybees
are the greatest pollinators on Earth. Nearly one-third of <st1:country-region
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> agriculture depends on the 2.4 million bee
colonies for big crop production, where they annually pollinate $14 billion
worth of seeds and crops, a <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Cornell</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> study
estimates. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Keith
Delaplane, a national expert on honeybees and a Walter B. Hill Fellow at the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Georgia</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>, is leading a team of 21
researchers from 18 universities across the nation, with funding from the
federal government, to discover and solve what's killing the bees. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
have met all of our bench marks for year one," said Mr. Delaplane.
"We are spot on target on everything. The research is cooking." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Things
are cooking, but it's still a mess in the kitchen and in the laboratory and the
hopeful timeline of three years or less to find the solution still has a long
way to go. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"CCD
is many things. It's not one thing," he said. "And it's going to be
difficult to reverse it because it is a very messy combination of science and
education." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>An
estimated 80,000 American beekeepers are desperate for answers. And their plea
has reached <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>,
with the USDA pumping $4.1 million into this time-critical research. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I'd
like to give it a tighter timeline," said Mr. Pettis. "We're working
heavily on a number of fronts." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Through
the growing science of genomics - the science of looking at molecular
information in DNA - Mr. Delaplane's science team will select a super-resistant
bee that is able to naturally combat CCD and a culprit in this disorder: varroa
mites. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>First,
"We're going to be identifying bees that are resistant to XYZ"
diseases, he said. Then, "We will be able to genetically mark these
lines." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
technique of marking and using favorable genetic traits is now done in the
animal and plant industry, but marking a natural trait is different than
engineering a change. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
have no plan for doing [genetic] engineered selections," Mr. Delaplane
said. "We're going to be screening for natural resistance." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Afterward,
Mr. Delaplane's team will take those disease-resistant bees and breed more of
them. Here science is guiding the process of natural selection. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Once the
genetically strong bees are developed in the laboratory, they will be shipped
to commercial bee breeders. The breeders, in turn, will mass produce them and
flood the market with disease-resistant bees to beekeepers across the country.
CCD may still be around, but the superbee's immune system will effectively
combat it. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
prevailing theory on the cause of CCD includes several factors. The three main
suspects of CCD are: viruses, stress and pesticides. When joined together these
factors may create the deadly disease, researchers say. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Currently,
there are 18 known viruses adversely affecting honeybees. Mr. Delaplane's group
is targeting two of them. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"There's
a couple of viruses that keep bubbling to the top ...," said Mr.
Delaplane. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>One of
them is the deformed-wing virus, which causes the bees' wings to become
disfigured, hampering or preventing flight. It is caused by the varroa mite
riding on the adult bee, which is then passed to baby bees growing in the comb.
It was first discovered in bees from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the 1980s. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
second one is the Israeli acute paralysis virus, which causes the bees' wings
to shake violently, inducing paralysis and death. It was first identified in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> in 2004 by <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Hebrew</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
researchers, but its origin is not known. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
addition to viruses plaguing the bees, their immune system is under
considerable stress by the constant moving to pollinate. The major commercial
migration for bees is from the Midwest to <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> in October and November. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Beekeepers
move their bees on flat-bed trucks from coast to coast," Mr. Delaplane
said. This migratory lifestyle "totally disrupts" the bees seasonal
rhythm. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
always think: busy as a bee. Well, actually they are not that busy," Mr.
Delaplane said. In nature, most of the time, they are "hunkered
down." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>James
Rushfeld, a <st1:place w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:place> commercial beekeeper and
trucker who hauls bees throughout the country at about 500 hives per load, said
he is losing a substantial amount of his load to CCD. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We
lost about half of our bees two seasons ago," he said. "Last year our
bees did a little better." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Returning
home from <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
in 2008, Mr. Rushfeld found a vast amount of hives empty. "The bees were
gone," he said. "In CCD, the bees just kind of disappear." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Problems
with pesticides using neonicotinoids, which attack the central nervous system
of insects, also get a lot of attention. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"You
go anywhere in the world and look at the time frame when they started using
neonicotinoids," said David Hackenberg, owner of Hackenberg Apiaries in
Lewisburg, Pa., and the first person to report CCD. "As the increase of
neonicotinoids spread, the bigger the problem becomes." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
November 2006 Mr. Hackenberg said he saw the first signs of CCD and reported it
to researchers. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Two years
earlier, he serviced an apple orchard in upstate <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:State> that had been recently sprayed with
neonicotinoids. After his semiload of 400 hives pollinated the orchard, he
rolled out to pollinate some neighboring blueberries. That's when things became
strange in May. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Mr.
Hackenberg said the healthy spring bees began swarming in mass, which never
occurs in early spring. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"They
disappeared," he said. "I don't know where they went." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But what
the bees left was just as puzzling. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
interesting thing about it is the honey boxes are sitting here full of
honey," Mr. Hackenberg said. Bees only abandon their vital honey in dire
circumstances. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"I've
been at this [business] 40 some years. I've never seen anything like this. They
fly off into no man's land I guess," Mr. Hackenberg said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Where the
bees disappear to is a mystery. But many in the bee business are convinced the
disappearing act is connected to neonicotinoids. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Neonicotinoids,
like most insecticides, are toxic to honeybees," said Jack Boyne, an
entomologist and director of communications at Bayer CropScience, a leading producer
of neonicotinoids. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
product is used nationwide. But its use is limited or banned in some European
countries. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We've
done a tremendous amount of research on our neonicotinoid products," Mr.
Boyne said. "None of our research, and that of independent scientists, has
supported the claim that they are a major cause, or even a cause of CCD." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"To
assume that pesticides are the cause of this (CCD) problem is a convenient, but
erroneous conclusion in our opinion," said Mr. Boyne. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>CCD has
been reported elsewhere, including <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>. But
in countries such as <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
the disease is absent. The bee populations are also healthy in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Greece</st1:place></st1:country-region> and in
the African countries. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:38.25pt'><font size=2
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>Sunny
Boyd</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>Pollinator Partnership</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><font size=2
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>423
Washington St.</span></font></st1:address></st1:Street><font size=2
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>,
5th Floor</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>San
Francisco</span></font></st1:City><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94111</st1:PostalCode></span></font></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>t. 415.362.1137</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>f. 415.362.3070</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><a href="mailto:sun@pollinator.org"><font
size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>sun@pollinator.org</span></font></a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.</span></font></i></em> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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