[Pollinator] USDA study links pathogens, bee deaths

[Ladadams at aol.com]

AGRICULTURE: USDA study links  pathogens, bee deaths  (Thursday, August 13, 
2009) 
Sara Goodman, E&E reporter 
Pathogens are more common in honeybee hives suffering from a mysterious  
and deadly bee illness, colony collapse disorder (CCD), according to a federal 
 study released yesterday. 
Scientists from the  Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service 
and Pennsylvania State  University examined 200 factors -- from pesticides 
and viruses to nutrition --  among 91 bee colonies from 13 apiaries in 
Florida and California, where many  beekeepers keep honeybees during the winter. 
Overall, the study found hives with CCD had greater numbers of pathogens  
-- including bacteria, microparasites and viruses. Fifty-five percent of CCD  
colonies were infected with three or more viruses, compared to 28 percent 
of  non-CCD colonies, it found. 
The study is the  most comprehensive to link the number of pathogens and 
other stresses such as  diet with the disorder, the scientists said. But the 
work does not reveal  whether increased pathogens caused the bee die-off or 
resulted from it. It is  still unknown what caused the bees to become 
infected with so many  pathogens. 
Scientists have been at a loss to  explain what has been causing adult bees 
to mysteriously disappear from their  colonies since 2006. They have looked 
at a variety of possible causes, including  new and re-emerging pathogens, 
pesticides, habitat loss, pests that infest  beehives, commercial bee 
management practices and nutritional stress.  
No single pathogen emerged more than others in the  study, and there was no 
association between increased pesticide levels and bee  disappearance, the 
scientists found. Because of this, the results do not point  to a single 
cause of the disorder, but they do highlight future research areas  by showing 
which causes are less likely, noted Agricultural Research Service  
entomologist Jeff Pettis. 
The honeybee  industry is valued at more than $15 billion, with nearly 130 
crops dependent on  pollination. Pollinators are responsible for the 
reproduction of 75 percent of  the world's flowering plants, most of which are crop 
species. USDA estimates a  third of the human diet comes from 
insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is  responsible for 80 percent of that 
pollination. 
_Click here_ 
(http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0006481;jsessionid=FD7EE265CBA1AC5323F39D61A272CDAF)  to read the study. 
Want to read more stories like this? 
_Click here_ (http://www.eenews.net/trial/)  to start a free trial to E&E 
-- the best  way to track policy and markets.  



































Laurie Davies Adams
Executive  Director
Pollinator Partnership 
423 Washington Street, 5th  floor
San Francisco, CA  94111
415-362-1137
LDA at pollinator.org

_www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 

_www.nappc.org_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

National Pollinator Week is June 21-27, 2010. 
Beecome  involved at _www.pollinator.org_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20090813/b25ee344/attachment.html>