<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoAcetate, li.MsoAcetate, div.MsoAcetate
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Balloon Text Char";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:8.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.BalloonTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Balloon Text Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Balloon Text";
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="2050" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=WordSection1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img
width=288 height=66 id="Picture_x0020_15"
src="cid:image001.png@01CBA734.3AF3B820"></span></b><b><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Flower
sharing may be unsafe for bees <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Wild
pollinators are catching honeybee viruses, possibly from pollen <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>By
</span><a
href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/authored/id/70/name/Susan_Milius"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Susan Milius</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>December
24, 2010 Web edition: 10:37 am <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/68058/description/Flower_sharing_may_be_unsafe_for_bees"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/68058/description/Flower_sharing_may_be_unsafe_for_bees</span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.sciencenews.org/view/access/id/68060/name/sm_48225421w.jpg"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:blue;
text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=190 height=131 id="Picture_x0020_3"
src="cid:image002.jpg@01CBA734.3AF3B820" alt=access></span></a><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>RISKY
JOB Groping around for pollen in a flower could expose a wild bumblebee such as
Bombus ternarius, shown here, to infection by honeybee viruses. Beatriz
Moisset/Wikimedia Commons<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Eleven species
of wild pollinators in the United States have turned up carrying some of the
viruses known to menace domestic honeybees, possibly picked up via flower
pollen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Most of these
native pollinators haven’t been recorded with honeybee viruses before,
according to Diana Cox-Foster of Penn State University in University Park. The
new analysis raises the specter of diseases swapping around readily among
domestic and wild pollinators, Cox-Foster and her colleagues report online
December 22 in <i>PLoS ONE</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Gone are any
hopes that viral diseases in honeybees will stay in honeybees, she says.
“Movement of any managed pollinator may introduce viruses.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A pattern showed
up in the survey that fits that unpleasant scenario. Researchers tested for
five viruses in pollinating insects and in their pollen hauls near apiaries in
Pennsylvania, New York and Illinois. Israeli acute parasitic virus showed up in
wild pollinators near honeybee installations carrying the disease but not near
apiaries without the virus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In domestic
honeybees, such viruses rank as one of the possible contributors to the still-mysterious
malady known as colony collapse disorder that abruptly wipes out a hive’s
workforce, Cox-Foster says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Now she and
others are looking at what the viruses do to wild pollinators. Preliminary
results of ongoing lab tests show some disturbing effects, Cox-Foster says.
“Is this part of the reason why we’ve seen the decline of native
pollinator species in the U.S.?” she muses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Surveys show
that wild bumblebees, for example, are dwindling in numbers, and the new study
raises further concerns. “We recognize that those viruses likely pose a
major threat to wild bumblebees,” says Sarina Jepsen of the Xerces
Society, an invertebrate conservation group in Portland, Ore.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>One of the most
interesting results in the study is the detection of deformed-wing virus and
sacbrood virus in pollen carried by foraging bees that weren’t infected
themselves, comments Michelle Flenniken of the University of California, San
Francisco, who has studied bee viruses but was not involved in the new work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Healthy foraging
insects carrying virus-laden pollen are one of the pieces of evidence that
Cox-Foster and her colleagues use to argue that pollen by itself can transmit
viral infections. “Knowing that viruses are found in and can be
transmitted from pollen is an important finding,” says Flenniken.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This raises
concerns about possible virus transmission through the 200 tons of
honeybee-collected pollen used to feed bumblebees in bee-raising operations
worldwide, Cox-Foster says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>*************************<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Scott
Hoffman Black<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Executive
Director<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>The
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Chair<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>IUCN
(International Union for Conservation of Nature) Butterfly <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Specialist
Group<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>4828
SE Hawthorne<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Portland,
OR 97215<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>Direct
line (503) 449-3792<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><a
href="https://webmail.integra.net/src/compose.php?send_to=sblack%40xerces.org"><span
style='color:blue'>sblack@xerces.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>The
Xerces Society is an international, nonprofit organization that <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>protects
wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>To
join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>please
visit <<a href="http://www.xerces.org/" target="_blank"><span
style='color:blue'>http://www.xerces.org/</span></a>>www.xerces.org.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>