Mystery Bee Disease investigated in California
Pastor Dale Morgan
Mystery Bee Disease investigated in California*
Updated 2/14/2007 8:29 AM ET
Bee dissections are seen in a lab at Penn State in State College, Pa.
The mystery ailment has killed off tens of thousands of honeybee
colonies in at least 21 states, researchers said.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Scientists looking into a mysterious ailment
killing off millions of honeybees are hoping to find answers out West,
where bees are currently helping pollinate California's profitable
almond crop.
Beekeepers from around the country each year flock to the Golden State
this time of year, releasing their insects to jump-start the $1.4
billion California almond crop.
Researchers hope the diversity gives them a large sample from which to
figure out why some bees remain healthy while others become afflicted
with an illness called colony collapse disorder.
The ailment has killed off tens of thousands of honeybee colonies in at
least 21 states, researchers said, threatening the livelihood of
commercial beekeepers and potentially putting a strain on fruit growers
and other farmers that rely on bees to pollinate their crops.
The expedition to California couldn't have come at a better time for
researchers scrambling for answers. About half of the nation's available
commercial bees are transported to California each February for the
task, when trees burst with light pink-and-white blossom
Marsha Venable, spokeswoman for the Almond Board of California, which
represents growers, said a group task force assigned to monitor the
situation found that there was no bee shortage this year.
"There's a sense of comfort of enough bees to do the job," Venable said
Monday by phone. California accounts for 80% of the world's almonds,
according to that state's food and agriculture department.
But bee researchers from Pennsylvania and Montana who have spent the
last couple weeks in California collecting test samples said they have
heard stories of beekeepers having lost colonies by the thousands,
forcing them to return home with no work and few bees.
"One yard had colonies that were failing. One was one of the worst cases
we've seen," University of Montana bee researcher Jerry Bromenshenk said
in a phone interview on Monday. "That's why we are all focused in
California at this point."
The first report of colony collapse disorder came into researchers at
Penn State University in November, though scientists now think that the
problem may have been around as early as a couple years ago.
Bromenshenk is also president of Bee Alert Technology, a Missoula,
Mont.-based firm that is surveying beekeepers to determine the
geographic extent of the problem.
While there are no definitive answers, he said survey results so far
show the first signs of the illness may have popped up in Michigan,
Wisconsin and Iowa.
Twenty-one states, including Pennsylvania, have reported problems
according to Bromenshenk's survey. Bromenshenk and Dennis van
Englesdorp, acting state apiarist for the Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture, said Monday there also was a reported potential problem in
a 22nd state — Texas.
Bromenshenk and van Englesdorp will be among a group of researchers —
along with scientists from Penn State and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture — and beekeepers who plan to meet in Florida next week to
discuss the problem.
The country's bee population had already been shocked in recent years by
a tiny, parasitic bug called the varroa mite, which has destroyed more
than half of some beekeepers' hives and devastated most wild honeybee
populations.