Colony collapse disorder
[4] Beekeepers in most European countries had observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially in Southern and Western Europe;[5][6] the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%.
These losses were later attributed to a combination of factors, including adverse weather, intensive apiculture leading to inadequate forage, Acarine (tracheal) mites, and a new infection, the chronic bee paralysis virus,[24] but during the outbreak, the cause of this agricultural beekeeping problem was unknown.
[35] The 2014 Farm Bill has allowed for up to $20 million worth of subsidies every fiscal year to be put toward conservation of honeybees, livestock, and farm-raised fish that suffer losses due to disease, weather events, or adverse conditions.
[20] In 2024, the United States Census of Agriculture reported an all-time high in commercial honey bee hives (mostly in Texas), making them the fastest-growing livestock segment in the country.
The defective rectum indicates nutritional disruption or water imbalance, whereas rectal enteroliths suggest a malfunction of excretory physiology which might further lead to constipation and poor osmoregulation in CCD bees.
The abundance of unusual ribosomal RNA (rRNA) fragments containing poly(A)-rich 3′ tails was detected via microarray analysis and qPCR in the guts of CCD bees.
[55] As of 2022, the number of colonies had reached an all-time high of 3.8 million, rising by 31% since 2007, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, largely due to the growth of small producers in Texas.
He feels recent studies suggest "further evidence to the evolving picture that there are complex interactions taking place between a number of factors, pathogens, environmental, beekeeping practices, and other stressors, which are causing honey bee losses described as CCD in the US".
[46] The case study further notes that the colonies did not have damaging levels of Varroa destructor or Nosema spp at the time of the collapse but emphasized that pathogens could not be ruled out as playing a role.
[63] The mechanisms of CCD are still unknown, but many causes are currently being considered, such as pesticides, mites, fungi, beekeeping practices (such as the use of antibiotics or long-distance transportation of beehives), malnutrition, poor quality queens, starvation, other pathogens, and immunodeficiencies.
[75] The same year, the CCD Working Group published a comprehensive descriptive study that concluded: "Of the 61 variables quantified (including adult bee physiology, pathogen loads, and pesticide levels), no single factor was found with enough consistency to suggest one causal agent.
[78][79]Early researchers commented that the pathway of propagation functions in the manner of a contagious disease; however, some sentiment existed that the disorder may involve an immunosuppressive mechanism,[80] potentially linked to "stress" leading to a weakened immune system.
[citation needed] In 2020 a group of scientists announced that they were in the early stages of field testing a bacterium with specifically genetically modified plasmids that both suppressed infection with deformed wing virus but also effectively reduced Varroa mite survival.
[111] A few months later, the methods used to interpret the mass spectrometry data in the Bromenshenk study were called into question, raising doubts as to whether IIV-6 was ever correctly identified in any of the samples examined.
Second, many commercial beekeeping operations are mobile, transporting hives over large geographic distances over the course of a season, potentially exposing the colonies to different pesticides at each location.
[137] In 2015, an 11-year British study showed a correlation between increasing agricultural use of neonicotinoid seed treatments and escalating honey bee colony losses at a landscape level.
The imidacloprid pesticide Gaucho was banned in 1999 by the French Minister of Agriculture Jean Glavany, primarily due to concern over potential effects on honey bees.
[147][148] In 2013, a formal review by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), reported that some neonicotinoids posed an unacceptably high risk to bees, and identified several data gaps not previously considered.
Their review concluded, "A high acute risk to honey bees was identified from exposure via dust drift for the seed treatment uses in maize, oilseed rape and cereals.
[151] The ban can be seen as an application of the "precautionary principle", established at the 1992 Rio Conference on the Environment and Development, which advocated that "lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.
[154] The EPA responded to the suit by pointing to research which found the Varroa mite responsible for the decline in bees and showed that the role of neonicotinoids in CCD had been overstated.
[159] In May 2003, the French Directorate-General of Food at the Ministry of Agriculture determined that a case of mass bee mortality observed in southern France was related to acute fipronil toxicity.
In February 2003, the ministry decided to temporarily suspend the sale of BASF crop protection products containing fipronil in France, including the "Regent" brand.
[160] In 2010 fipronil was blamed for the spread of CCD among bees, in a study by the Minutes-Association for Technical Coordination Fund in France, which found that even at very low nonlethal doses, this pesticide impaired the ability to locate the hive, resulting in large numbers of foragers lost with every pollen-finding expedition, though no mention was made regarding any of the other symptoms of CCD;[161] other studies, however, have shown no acute effect of fipronil on honey bees.
[43] Researchers from Washington State University, under entomologist Steve Sheppard in 2009, confirmed high levels of pesticide residue in hive wax and found an association between it and significantly reduced bee longevity.
[3] This was the only factor that all of the cases of CCD had in common in the report; accordingly, there appeared to be at least some significant possibility that the phenomenon was correlated to nutritional stress that may not manifest in healthy, well-nourished colonies.
[180] Despite considerable discussion on the Internet and in the lay media, there have been almost no careful studies, published in peer-reviewed scientific literature, on the effects of electromagnetic field exposure on honeybees.
Additionally, larvae consumed only a small percent of their protein from pollen, and there was also a lack of geographic correlation between GM crop locations and regions where CCD occurred.
[195][196][197] Russian honey bees also resist infestations of varroa mites but are still susceptible to other factors associated with colony collapse disorder, and have detrimental traits that limit their relevance in commercial apiculture.
[198] In particular, the register, funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and administered by the National Bee Unit, will be used to monitor health trends and help establish whether the honey industry is under threat from supposed colony collapse disorder.
