The US Department of Agriculture has announced a coordinated plan to figure out what's causing honeybee colonies to disappear. Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, became widely apparent in the winter of 2006-2007, when beekeepers in many states began reporting losses of 30 to 90 percent of their hives. Honeybees are vital to many crops across the United States. They are used to pollinate more than 130 crops and add $15 billion in crop value each year.
USDA's Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Gale Buchanan announced the new plan on July 13th. "There were enough honeybees to provide pollination for U.S. agriculture this year, but beekeepers could face a serious problem next year and beyond," she said. According to Buchanan, the new plan "provides a coordinated framework to ensure that all of the research that needs to be done is covered in order to get to the bottom of the CCD problem."
The plan says that CCD could be caused by bee pests or parasites; environmental or nutritional stress; pesticides; new or re-emerging pathogens; or a combination of those factors. Scientists intend to survey the current situation, analyze samples for pesticides and pathogens, undertake controlled experiments to find the cause of CCD and develop plans to improve the general health bees to help them fend off future problems.
(image of healthy bees: Stephen Ausmus courtesy ARS/USDA)
After our community sprayed against gypsy moth (with BBT, which they claimed was harmless for other insects) I found a few drunken-looking bees that could hardly move sitting on the leaves...
Posted by: Irina K | July 19, 2007 at 09:54 AM