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From: kegarvey@ucdavis.edu<BR>To: lda@pollinator.org<BR>Sent: 1/4/2012 4:28:52
P.M. Pacific Standard Time<BR>Subj: What&apos;s troubling the honey
bees<BR></DIV>
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<P><EM><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Hi,
Laurie,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></EM></P>
<P><EM><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Can
you send this out on the server? Thanks!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></EM></P>
<P><B><U><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Three Decades of Beekeeping: Not Business
as Usual</SPAN></U></B><EM><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></EM></P>
<P><EM><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">DAVIS-</SPAN></EM><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">-Noted honey bee expert <A
title=http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/PEOPLE/ericmussen.html
href="http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/PEOPLE/ericmussen.html">Eric Mussen</A>,
Extension apiculturist with the UC Davis Department of Entomology, will
discuss three decades of beekeeping when he delivers the keynote address on
Thursday, Jan. 5 at the 43rd annual American Honey Producers’ Association
Convention in Phoenix.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Mussen will speak on “Never Expert ‘Business
as Usual” in the Sheraton Crescent Hotel. He will cover pests, parasites,
pesticides, diseases, malnutrition and stress.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Mussen, who joined the UC Davis Department of
Entomology in 1976, will also touch on the newly announced threat to honey
bees, the parasitic phorid fly <EM><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">(Apocephalus borealis).</SPAN></EM>
San Francisco State University researchers, in work published Jan. 3 in the
<EM><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><A
title=http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0029639
href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029639">Public
Library of Science (PLoS One)</A></SPAN></EM><A
title=http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0029639
href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029639">
journal</A>, found that the parasitic fly lays its eggs in the honey bees; it
was previously known to parasitize bumble bees, but not honey bees.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">The infested bees reportedly fly around like
zombies and cannot return to their hives.<BR>“This information explains why
some, infested, honey bee adults leave the colony at night and are not likely
to come back,” Mussen said. “The percent infestation level is not high enough
to cause a Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) loss, by itself. However, anything
that further stresses the bee population and increases bee losses can
contribute to CCD.” <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Mussen said the fly “may be contributing to
the loss of adult bees from colonies, but that probably is happening, also, in
colonies that are not collapsing. CCD seems to be an additive malady, so
losses to fly parasitism can join the other stresses. It does not appear
to be a dominant factor. ”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">The San Francisco researchers detected the
fly parasite in some commercial hives in California and South Dakota.
Mussen said that without surveys, “we would not know for sure how
widespread it is. However, it is likely that a bumble bee parasite would
be distributed at least as widespread as its bumble bee
hosts.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Mussen said he does not consider the fly a
significant threat. “Honey bees have an amazing ability to ‘make up for’
unanticipated losses--like exposures to bee-toxic agrichemicals in the
fields--to the adult population by rearing more brood than would be expected
at that time of the year to return to normal populations size. So, if
the colony is shrinking, abnormally, the bees often can re-establish the
normal size by rearing ‘extra’ brood. However, depending upon the
inherent genetic abilities of a specific colony to tolerate fly parasitism,
some colonies might be prone to developing parasite levels that are
overwhelming, and actually succumb to the infestations.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>See more at
http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/ericmussensusancobeyahpa.html<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Kathy Keatley
Garvey<BR>Communications Specialist<BR>Department of Entomology<BR>372 Briggs
Hall<BR>One Shields Ave.<BR>University of California, Davis<BR>Davis, CA
95616<BR>Phone: (530) 754-6894<BR>Fax: (530) 752-1537<BR><A
title=mailto:kegarvey@ucdavis.edu href="mailto:kegarvey@ucdavis.edu"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">kegarvey@ucdavis.edu</SPAN></A></SPAN> <BR>UC Davis
Department of Entomology website:<BR><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><A
title=http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/home.cfm
href="http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/home.cfm"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/home.cfm</SPAN></A><BR>Harry
H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility website:<BR><A
title=http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/
href="http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu/"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">http://beebiology.ucdavis.edu</SPAN></A><BR>UC Agriculture
and Natural Resources website:<BR><A title=http://ucanr.org/index.cfm
href="http://ucanr.org/index.cfm"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">http://ucanr.org/index.cfm</SPAN></A><BR>Bug Squad
Blog<BR><A title=http://ucanr.org/blogs/bugsquad/
href="http://ucanr.org/blogs/bugsquad/"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">http://ucanr.org/blogs/bugsquad/</SPAN></A><BR>Flickr
Photos </SPAN><BR><A title=http://www.flickr.com/photos/pho-tog/
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pho-tog/"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue">http://www.flickr.com/photos/pho-tog/</SPAN></A><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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