Honey Bee colony collapse disorder
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon characterized by the sudden and unexplained disappearance of adult honeybees from their colonies, first identified in 2006. This disorder has raised significant international concern due to the crucial role honeybees play in pollinating many crops, including a large portion of fruits and vegetables, vital for food production. Beekeepers began reporting this issue during the fall and winter of 2006-2007, noting the absence of adult worker bees, which led to the decline of hives that were left with only young bees and the queen.
Multiple factors have been speculated as contributors to CCD, including pathogens, environmental stressors, pesticide exposure—particularly neonicotinoids—and invasive species like the Varroa mite. While some studies indicated a potential link between neonicotinoids and increased hive abandonment, by 2015, researchers had not identified a single definitive cause. The impact of CCD has been significant, with reported hive loss rates soaring to 36% in some years, compared to 15-20% historically. However, by the mid-2010s, the immediate threat of CCD seemed to decline, with researchers observing a decrease in cases and noting that honeybee populations had some resilience due to rapid reproduction. Despite these trends, overall bee population losses continued, highlighting ongoing challenges in bee health and sustainability.
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Honey Bee colony collapse disorder
THE EVENT: Sudden, unexplained decrease in bee colonies in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East
DATE: Syndrome first discovered during fall 2006
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the mysterious disappearance of adult honeybees beginning in the latter half of the first decade of the twenty-first century, thought to be the result of multiple causes.
In 2006 the sudden disappearance of adult honeybees from colonies throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East became a crisis of international concern. Humans are highly dependent on bees not only for honey production but, more importantly, for the pollination of dozens of varieties of fruits and vegetables, as well as almonds, hay, cotton, and other crops. Beekeepers first noticed the syndrome during the fall and winter season in 2006 and 2007, when adult worker bees were disappearing from their hives without any trace, leaving behind only the young bees, the queen, and the honey they had already produced. Without worker bees, the hives died off completely.
The phenomenon was named colony collapse disorder (CCD), and there were many opinions and theories about the probable causes of the syndrome. Speculation regarding the probable cause or causes included cell phone radiation (an idea since discredited), a brand new disease or pathogen, toxic pesticides, invasive mites, fungal infections, poor nutrition, drought, and stress incurred by the bees as pollination services moved their beehives from farm to farm. In 2014, solar flares and the resulting shifts in terrestrial magnetic fields, which can interfere with the ability of bees to find their way back to their hives, was proposed as another potential factor in CCD.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the CCD Steering Committee, which set in place an action plan to collect data, analyze bee samples, conduct research, and formulate preventive measures, while teams of entomologists from research universities also began studying the phenomenon. Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) and the Varroa mite, one of the most destructive pests to honeybees during the twentieth century, have been of particular interest to researchers. Another prime suspect has been neonicotinoids, a class of systemic insecticides used to coat seeds. Neonicotinoids are known to disorient bees' homing and were banned in France, Germany, and other European countries after being implicated in CCD. One study published in the May 2014 issue of Bulletin of Insectology found that neonicotinoids negatively affected the winterization of colonies and that half of hives exposed to neonicotinoids were subsequently abandoned as compared to one in six control hives, prompting the US Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate that pesticide class. Other research suggest that neonicotinoids make bees more susceptible to Varroa infections, and this combination may drive CCD.
Impact
Until the presence of colony collapse disorder, beekeepers averaged annual losses of about 15–20 percent due to Varroa mites, fungi, and other known factors. After 2006, CCD was responsible for increasing losses as high as 36 percent in some years, a potentially disastrous increase as humans depend on bees to pollinate roughly one-third of the world’s food supply. Specific concerns have included the possibility of a shortage of honey and other foods, as well as increased food prices as the agricultural industry pays more for pollination services. As of 2015, scientists remained unable to pinpoint a single cause of CCD, but many concluded that a combination of factors—such as higher pesticide exposure increasing susceptibility to dangerous infection—is probably responsible.
Ongoing concerns about CCD led to widespread publicity about the phenomenon in the late 2000s and 2010s. However, by the mid-2010s, many experts believed that the threat of honeybee extinction due to the disorder had largely passed. The ability of bees to reproduce rapidly mitigated some of the effects of bee population loss from CCD, and known cases of CCD declined significantly after about 2011. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) noted in 2016 that by 2013 the percentage of total hive losses caused by CCD dropped to 31.1 percent in 2013 from 60 percent in 2008, and was seen as only a minor factor in losses in 2014–15. However, despite the decline of CCD itself as a threat, bee populations continued to suffer from high yearly losses. Some studies even found that losses were occurring during summer months in addition to normal losses over the winter.
Bibliography
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