More commercial bee colonies lost
Pastor Dale Morgan
More commercial bee colonies lost*
* Story Highlights
* Survey: 36.1 percent of nation's commercially managed hives lost
since last year
* New diseases, pesticide drift, old enemies like parasitic mite blamed
* Survey included 327 operators -- 19 percent of U.S. commercial
beehives
* About 29 percent of deaths due to collapse disorder, in which bees
abandon hives
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A survey of bee health released
Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's
commercially managed hives lost since last year.
Bees are dying at unsustainable levels, the president of the Apiary
Inspectors of America says.
Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America
found losses of about 32 percent.
As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops
around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight
of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic
varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.
This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths
across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers to show a
trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the
situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with
the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
"For two years in a row, we've sustained a substantial loss," he said.
"That's an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows,
or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot
of alarm."
The survey included 327 operators who account for 19 percent of the
country's approximately 2.44 million commercially managed beehives. The
data is being prepared for submission to a journal.
About 29 percent of the deaths were due to colony collapse disorder, a
mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives.
Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have
major losses than those who didn't.
"What's frightening about CCD is that it's not predictable or
understood," vanEngelsdorp said.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced
that the state would pour an additional $20,400 into research at
Pennsylvania State University looking for the causes of CCD. This raises
emergency funds dedicated to investigating the disease to $86,000.
The issue also has attracted federal grants and funding from companies
that depend on honeybees, including ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs.
Because the berries, fruits and nuts that give about 28 of Haagen-Dazs'
varieties flavor depend on honeybees for pollination, the company is
donating up to $250,000 to CCD and sustainable pollination research at
Penn State and the University of California, Davis.