September 10, 2007
Mystery solved - maybe.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says a rare virus originating in Israel is most likely responsible for the dramatic and sudden disappearance of honey bees.
In a report, USDA researchers identified Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus as the probable cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, in which bees abandon their hives. While they say the evidence is not entirely conclusive, it points to IAPV as the most likely cause.
In announcing its suspicions, USDA said the virus could severely hamper U.S. food production. As a solution, the agency says growers may have to artificially pollinate their crops.
Earlier theories put the blame on pesticides and even cell phones.
IAPV was discovered in Israel in 2002, where honey bees began to disappear. The disease is transmitted by the varroa mite. It was found in more than 96 percent of the Colony Collapse Disorder bee samples.
Colony Collapse Disorder began to trigger alarm bells among bee keepers last year when some commercial bee operations reported losing up to 90 percent of their hives. Theories behind the disappearance have ranged from cell phones to global warming.
Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value, particularly for specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables, according to USDA. About one mouthful in three in the diet directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee pollination.
While there are native pollinators, honey bees are more prolific and the easiest to manage for the large scale pollination that U.S. agriculture requires. In California, the almond crop alone uses 1.3 million colonies of bees, approximately one half of all honey bees in the United States, and this need is projected to grow to 1.5 million colonies by 2010.
The number of managed honey bee colonies has dropped from 5 million in the1940s to only 2.5 million today. At the same time, the call for hives to supply pollination service has continued to climb. This means honey bee colonies are trucked farther and more often than ever before.
USDA says honey bee colony health has also been declining since the 1980s with the advent of new pathogens and pests. The spread into the United States of varroa and tracheal mites, in particular, created major new stresses on honey bees.
