Bayer Research Blames Varroa Mites, Which Arrived In US 20 Years Before Colony Collapse
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While some bees die in the winter, unusually large-scale die-offs were first noticed in 2006 and have been called “colony collapse disorder” by scientists. In 2007, a United States government panel said in that first year’s winter, “as much as 50 percent of all colonies were reportedly lost, demonstrating symptoms inconsistent with mite damage, or any other known causes of death.”
Western Europe also experienced steep declines and banned neonicotinoids in settings mostly likely to contaminate bees after the European Food Safety Authority raised concerns. The ban will be reviewed after two years.
While honey bees are susceptible to many threats, like beetles and bacterial diseases, a growing body of research has focused on neonicotinoids. In October, a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined how Bayer’s clothianidin “adversely affects the insect immune response and promotes replication of a viral pathogen in honey bees bearing covert infections.”
Ms. Mansfield, the Bayer official, did not broadly dispute such studies. “But they are, at the end of the day, laboratory results,” she said. “They are carried out in the laboratory quite often at doses that are not replicable or appropriate for use in the field, in very laboratory controlled conditions.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/business/energy-environment/accused-of-harming-bees-bayer-researches-a-different-culprit.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0