-Dave Hackenberg migrated with his family and bees from central Pennsylvania to central Florida.
-The bees finished pollination on blooming Pennsylvanian pumpkin fields.
-Checked on the bees they were "boiling over"
-After a month, the remaining colony had lost large numbers of workers.
-Young workers and queen remained healthy. Half of 3,000 bee hives devoid of bees.
-No dead bees in sight
-Diana and Dennis formed a working team by December 2006.
-Described the phenomenon and named it colony collapse disorder or CCD
-Hackenberg's colonies stopped dying the following spring, but 800 of original 3,000 colonies survived.
-Survey conducted said that 1/4 of U.S beekeepers suffered similar losses and more than 30% of all colonies died
-Next winter die off expanded, hitting 36 percent
-Bee loss raised alarms. 1/3 of world agriculture production depends on the European Honeybee or Apis mellifera
-Monoculture farms require intense pollination activity for short periods of the year, a role bees and bats cannot fill.
-Only A. mellifera can deploy armies of pollinators at almost any time of the year
-Collaboration ruled out causes for CCD and found many contributing factors. No single problem has been found.
-Bees with CCD are infested with pathogens including a newly discovered virus, but infections seem secondary
-Picture emerging is a complex condition triggered by different combinations of causes
-No easy remedy to CCD. Requires taking better care of the environment and making long-term changes to beekeeping
-Before CCD, honeybees suffered from other ailments that reproduced their populations
-Honeybee colonies in 2006 was about 2.4 million less than half what it was in 1949
-Beekeepers couldn't recall dramatic winter losses than in 2007 and 2008
-CCD won't cause honeybees to go extinct. If skills of beekeepers low, then nearly 100 of our crops could be left without pollination
-Large scale production of certain crops could be impossible, such as fruits and vegetables like apples, blueberries, broccoli, and almonds could become rare to find
-Hackenbergs vanishing bees lead the authors to think that the cause was varroa mites
-The parasites were responsible for 45 percent drop in number of managed bee colonies worldwide between 1987 and 2006.
-The females feed on the bee's blood
-Mites carry viruses and inhibit the hosts' immune responses. Hackenburg had a long experience of fighting mites, the symptoms were different
-vanEngelsdorp performed autopsies on Hackenberg's remaining insects and found symptoms never observed before, like scare tissue in internal organs
-Tests also detected usual suspects in bee disease. Gut contents were found spores of nosema, single-celled fungal parasites that can cause bee dysentery
-Spores counts in samples were not high enough to explain losses.
-Molecular analysis by Diana Cox-Foster revealed surprising levels of viral infections of various known types.
-No single pathogen found in the insects could explain scale of disappearance
-Bees were all sick, but each colony seemed to suffer from different combination of diseases.
-Authors hypothesized that something had compromised bees' immune system, making them susceptible to any number of infections that normal colonies can fend off
-Spring 2007- authors task force began countrywide surveys of all aspects of colony management, interviewing operators that encountered CCD and those that haven't
-No beekeeper management method could be blamed
-Symptoms affected stationary beekeepers and migratory ones. Even organic beekeepers were affected
-Die-offs caused the public to express concern. Many wanted to share idea to the reasoning of CCD
-One theory favored was that bees were poisoned by pollen from genetically modified crops, specifically Bt crops
-The crops have a gene for insecticidal toxin. But the toxin only becomes activated in guts of caterpillars, mosquitoes and some beetles.
-Digestive tracts of the bees don't allow Bt to work
-Another theory is blaming synthetic poisons. Two main suspects were acaricides, the chemicals beekeepers use to control mites and pesticides. Either could be on pollinated crops
-By 2006, there were newer types of pesticides that replaced older ones. One was neonicotinoids, being blamed by beekeepers in France for harming insect pollinators
-The class of insecticides mimics effect of nicotine- a natural defense that tobacco plants deploy against leaf-eating pests. It is more toxic to insects than to vertebrates
-Neonicotinoids enter pollen and nectar of the plant, not just leaves, which means it affects pollinators
-Neonicotinoids decrease honeybee ability to remember how to get back to their hive, a sign that they can contribute to CCD
-Other experts suspected that bees' natural defense might bee undermined by poor nutrition.
-Honeybees no longer have the same number or variety of flowers available because humans tried to "neaten" the environment
-To bees and other pollinators, green lawns look like deserts. Diets of honeybees that pollinate large acreages of one crop may lack important nutrients, compared to pollinators that feed from multiples.
-Beekeepers attempted to manage the concerns by developing protein supplements to feed colonies, but have not prevented CCD
-The task force focused on pesticides and nutrition in addition to other obvious possibilities, a new mutated pathogen
-Tests for the three hypotheses required collecting samples. They joined Jeff Pettis of U.S Department of Agriculture to conduct the monumental effort
-With no dead bees to study, the team decided to collect live bees from apiaries in the midst of collapse.
-Bees were collected in alcohol for varroa and nosema counts
-Bees, pollen and honeycomb wax were frozen to be preserved for molecular and chemical analyses
-Samples were sent to colleague David Tarpy of N.C State University measured protein content. He found no difference between apiaries that had CCD and healthy ones. His results suggest that nutritional state couldn't explain CCD
-Much more startling was outcome of team's search for pesticides, which was helped by Pennsylvania State University
-Broad-spectrum analysis, sensitive to insecticides, herbicides and fungicides found more than 170 different chemicals.
-Most stored pollen samples contained 5 or more different compounds, and some contained as many as 35
-But although both levels and diversity of chemicals are of concern, none is the cause of CCD.
-Healthy colonies sometimes had higher levels of some chemicals than colonies with CCD
-No neonicotinoids were found in the original samples, but other pesticides cannot yet be exonerated.
-It remains possible that bees afflicted by CCD were harmed by a chemical not evident at the time of collected samples
-Attempts to identify a new infectious disease could b a root of CCD, looked as if they would go nowhere fast.
-None of the known bacterial, fungal or viral diseases of bees could account for CCD losses
-Cox Foster with Ian Lipkin's group in Columbia University turned to microbe-hunting method called metagenomics
-In the technique, DNA and RNA are collected from an environment containing many organisms
-Genetic material is blended together and minced to pieces short enough that sequences could be deciphered
-In regular gene sequencing, researchers use computer software to put the pieces back together and reconstruct genome of original organism
-In metagenomics, however the genes belong to different organisms so sequencing produces snapshot of sequences in a collection of organisms, including microscopic ones in an ecosystem
-Metagenomics was used to survey environments revealing surprising diversity of microorganisms
-Gene sequences in samples were from bees. Nonbee sequences matched to genetic sequences belonging to known organisms.
-Researchers with expertise in molecular analysis of organisms joined the team to find the potential culprit
-Investigation expanded general knowledge of honeybees
-All samples had eight different bacteria described in two previous studies.
-Findings suggest that those bacteria may be symbionts, serving an essential role in bee biology
-One bee virus stood out, never identified in U.S
-Israeli acute paralysis virus, or IAPV
-Pathogen first described in 2004
-IAPV was found in almost all colonies with CCD symptoms
-Correlation was not proof that IAPV was cause of CCD
-Two of three strains of IAPV infected bees. IAPV existed in bees in other parts of world for a while
-Cox-Foster experimented with healthy honeybees that had no exposure to IAPV
-Infection mimicked some symptoms of CCD. Findings supported notion that IAPV can cause CCD
-Additional sampling showed that IAPV alone could not cause CCD. Joint study in 2007 with USDA tracked colonies owned by 3 traveling beekeepers and observed colonies infected with IAVP without collapsing. Some colonies were able to rid themselves of the virus
-Consensus is that multiple factors can interact to weaken colonies and make them susceptible to a virus-mediated collapse
-Scientists are finding ways to protect against the IAVP. One is a interfering with RNA which blocks the virus.
-Long term solution is to breed virus resistant bees
-Humankind must act quickly to ensure that pact between flowers and pollinators stay intact, to safeguard our food supply and to protect our environment.
-Efforts will ensure that bees continue to provide pollination and our diets remain rich in fruits and vegetables
In this article the author talks about how CCD is affecting colony populations and causing the loss of many bees. Diana and Dennis formed a working team in December 2006. Survey conducted said that 1/4 of U.S beekeepers suffered similar losses and more than 30% of all colonies died. Next winter die off expanded, hitting 36 percent. Bee loss raised alarms. 1/3 of world agriculture production depends on the European Honeybee or Apis mellifera. CCD won't cause honeybees to go extinct. If skills of beekeepers low, then nearly 100 of our crops could be left without pollination. Large scale production of certain crops could be impossible, such as fruits and vegetables like apples, blueberries, broccoli, and almonds could become rare to find. Hackenbergs vanishing bees lead the authors to think that the cause was varroa mites. The parasites were responsible for 45 percent drop in number of managed bee colonies worldwide between 1987 and 2006. Consensus is that multiple factors can interact to weaken colonies and make them susceptible to a virus-mediated collapse. Humankind must act quickly to ensure that pact between flowers and pollinators stay intact, to safeguard our food supply and to protect our environment. Efforts will ensure that bees continue to provide pollination and our diets remain rich in fruits and vegetables.
So What?
Bees are very important in order to pollinate crops, and if they are affected the supply of crops can go down
Says Who?
Diana Cox-Foster and Dennis vanEngelsdorp
What if...?
What if all bees were to disappear, what would happen?
What does this remind me of?
This reminds me of when a new disease is found among humans, in the beginning the causes need to be found in order to cure the disease
-The bees finished pollination on blooming Pennsylvanian pumpkin fields.
-Checked on the bees they were "boiling over"
-After a month, the remaining colony had lost large numbers of workers.
-Young workers and queen remained healthy. Half of 3,000 bee hives devoid of bees.
-No dead bees in sight
-Diana and Dennis formed a working team by December 2006.
-Described the phenomenon and named it colony collapse disorder or CCD
-Hackenberg's colonies stopped dying the following spring, but 800 of original 3,000 colonies survived.
-Survey conducted said that 1/4 of U.S beekeepers suffered similar losses and more than 30% of all colonies died
-Next winter die off expanded, hitting 36 percent
-Bee loss raised alarms. 1/3 of world agriculture production depends on the European Honeybee or Apis mellifera
-Monoculture farms require intense pollination activity for short periods of the year, a role bees and bats cannot fill.
-Only A. mellifera can deploy armies of pollinators at almost any time of the year
-Collaboration ruled out causes for CCD and found many contributing factors. No single problem has been found.
-Bees with CCD are infested with pathogens including a newly discovered virus, but infections seem secondary
-Picture emerging is a complex condition triggered by different combinations of causes
-No easy remedy to CCD. Requires taking better care of the environment and making long-term changes to beekeeping
-Before CCD, honeybees suffered from other ailments that reproduced their populations
-Honeybee colonies in 2006 was about 2.4 million less than half what it was in 1949
-Beekeepers couldn't recall dramatic winter losses than in 2007 and 2008
-CCD won't cause honeybees to go extinct. If skills of beekeepers low, then nearly 100 of our crops could be left without pollination
-Large scale production of certain crops could be impossible, such as fruits and vegetables like apples, blueberries, broccoli, and almonds could become rare to find
-Hackenbergs vanishing bees lead the authors to think that the cause was varroa mites
-The parasites were responsible for 45 percent drop in number of managed bee colonies worldwide between 1987 and 2006.
-The females feed on the bee's blood
-Mites carry viruses and inhibit the hosts' immune responses. Hackenburg had a long experience of fighting mites, the symptoms were different
-vanEngelsdorp performed autopsies on Hackenberg's remaining insects and found symptoms never observed before, like scare tissue in internal organs
-Tests also detected usual suspects in bee disease. Gut contents were found spores of nosema, single-celled fungal parasites that can cause bee dysentery
-Spores counts in samples were not high enough to explain losses.
-Molecular analysis by Diana Cox-Foster revealed surprising levels of viral infections of various known types.
-No single pathogen found in the insects could explain scale of disappearance
-Bees were all sick, but each colony seemed to suffer from different combination of diseases.
-Authors hypothesized that something had compromised bees' immune system, making them susceptible to any number of infections that normal colonies can fend off
-Spring 2007- authors task force began countrywide surveys of all aspects of colony management, interviewing operators that encountered CCD and those that haven't
-No beekeeper management method could be blamed
-Symptoms affected stationary beekeepers and migratory ones. Even organic beekeepers were affected
-Die-offs caused the public to express concern. Many wanted to share idea to the reasoning of CCD
-One theory favored was that bees were poisoned by pollen from genetically modified crops, specifically Bt crops
-The crops have a gene for insecticidal toxin. But the toxin only becomes activated in guts of caterpillars, mosquitoes and some beetles.
-Digestive tracts of the bees don't allow Bt to work
-Another theory is blaming synthetic poisons. Two main suspects were acaricides, the chemicals beekeepers use to control mites and pesticides. Either could be on pollinated crops
-By 2006, there were newer types of pesticides that replaced older ones. One was neonicotinoids, being blamed by beekeepers in France for harming insect pollinators
-The class of insecticides mimics effect of nicotine- a natural defense that tobacco plants deploy against leaf-eating pests. It is more toxic to insects than to vertebrates
-Neonicotinoids enter pollen and nectar of the plant, not just leaves, which means it affects pollinators
-Neonicotinoids decrease honeybee ability to remember how to get back to their hive, a sign that they can contribute to CCD
-Other experts suspected that bees' natural defense might bee undermined by poor nutrition.
-Honeybees no longer have the same number or variety of flowers available because humans tried to "neaten" the environment
-To bees and other pollinators, green lawns look like deserts. Diets of honeybees that pollinate large acreages of one crop may lack important nutrients, compared to pollinators that feed from multiples.
-Beekeepers attempted to manage the concerns by developing protein supplements to feed colonies, but have not prevented CCD
-The task force focused on pesticides and nutrition in addition to other obvious possibilities, a new mutated pathogen
-Tests for the three hypotheses required collecting samples. They joined Jeff Pettis of U.S Department of Agriculture to conduct the monumental effort
-With no dead bees to study, the team decided to collect live bees from apiaries in the midst of collapse.
-Bees were collected in alcohol for varroa and nosema counts
-Bees, pollen and honeycomb wax were frozen to be preserved for molecular and chemical analyses
-Samples were sent to colleague David Tarpy of N.C State University measured protein content. He found no difference between apiaries that had CCD and healthy ones. His results suggest that nutritional state couldn't explain CCD
-Much more startling was outcome of team's search for pesticides, which was helped by Pennsylvania State University
-Broad-spectrum analysis, sensitive to insecticides, herbicides and fungicides found more than 170 different chemicals.
-Most stored pollen samples contained 5 or more different compounds, and some contained as many as 35
-But although both levels and diversity of chemicals are of concern, none is the cause of CCD.
-Healthy colonies sometimes had higher levels of some chemicals than colonies with CCD
-No neonicotinoids were found in the original samples, but other pesticides cannot yet be exonerated.
-It remains possible that bees afflicted by CCD were harmed by a chemical not evident at the time of collected samples
-Attempts to identify a new infectious disease could b a root of CCD, looked as if they would go nowhere fast.
-None of the known bacterial, fungal or viral diseases of bees could account for CCD losses
-Cox Foster with Ian Lipkin's group in Columbia University turned to microbe-hunting method called metagenomics
-In the technique, DNA and RNA are collected from an environment containing many organisms
-Genetic material is blended together and minced to pieces short enough that sequences could be deciphered
-In regular gene sequencing, researchers use computer software to put the pieces back together and reconstruct genome of original organism
-In metagenomics, however the genes belong to different organisms so sequencing produces snapshot of sequences in a collection of organisms, including microscopic ones in an ecosystem
-Metagenomics was used to survey environments revealing surprising diversity of microorganisms
-Gene sequences in samples were from bees. Nonbee sequences matched to genetic sequences belonging to known organisms.
-Researchers with expertise in molecular analysis of organisms joined the team to find the potential culprit
-Investigation expanded general knowledge of honeybees
-All samples had eight different bacteria described in two previous studies.
-Findings suggest that those bacteria may be symbionts, serving an essential role in bee biology
-One bee virus stood out, never identified in U.S
-Israeli acute paralysis virus, or IAPV
-Pathogen first described in 2004
-IAPV was found in almost all colonies with CCD symptoms
-Correlation was not proof that IAPV was cause of CCD
-Two of three strains of IAPV infected bees. IAPV existed in bees in other parts of world for a while
-Cox-Foster experimented with healthy honeybees that had no exposure to IAPV
-Infection mimicked some symptoms of CCD. Findings supported notion that IAPV can cause CCD
-Additional sampling showed that IAPV alone could not cause CCD. Joint study in 2007 with USDA tracked colonies owned by 3 traveling beekeepers and observed colonies infected with IAVP without collapsing. Some colonies were able to rid themselves of the virus
-Consensus is that multiple factors can interact to weaken colonies and make them susceptible to a virus-mediated collapse
-Scientists are finding ways to protect against the IAVP. One is a interfering with RNA which blocks the virus.
-Long term solution is to breed virus resistant bees
-Humankind must act quickly to ensure that pact between flowers and pollinators stay intact, to safeguard our food supply and to protect our environment.
-Efforts will ensure that bees continue to provide pollination and our diets remain rich in fruits and vegetables
In this article the author talks about how CCD is affecting colony populations and causing the loss of many bees. Diana and Dennis formed a working team in December 2006. Survey conducted said that 1/4 of U.S beekeepers suffered similar losses and more than 30% of all colonies died. Next winter die off expanded, hitting 36 percent. Bee loss raised alarms. 1/3 of world agriculture production depends on the European Honeybee or Apis mellifera. CCD won't cause honeybees to go extinct. If skills of beekeepers low, then nearly 100 of our crops could be left without pollination. Large scale production of certain crops could be impossible, such as fruits and vegetables like apples, blueberries, broccoli, and almonds could become rare to find. Hackenbergs vanishing bees lead the authors to think that the cause was varroa mites. The parasites were responsible for 45 percent drop in number of managed bee colonies worldwide between 1987 and 2006. Consensus is that multiple factors can interact to weaken colonies and make them susceptible to a virus-mediated collapse. Humankind must act quickly to ensure that pact between flowers and pollinators stay intact, to safeguard our food supply and to protect our environment. Efforts will ensure that bees continue to provide pollination and our diets remain rich in fruits and vegetables.
So What?
Bees are very important in order to pollinate crops, and if they are affected the supply of crops can go down
Says Who?
Diana Cox-Foster and Dennis vanEngelsdorp
What if...?
What if all bees were to disappear, what would happen?
What does this remind me of?
This reminds me of when a new disease is found among humans, in the beginning the causes need to be found in order to cure the disease