Virus implicated in bee decline

[Barrett808]

Source: BBC

Virus implicated in bee decline
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

A virus has emerged as a strong suspect in the hunt for the mystery disease killing off North American honeybees.

Genetic research showed that Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) turned up regularly in hives affected by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

...

"The genome of the honeybee had just been completed," noted Diana Cox-Foster, an entomologist from Penn State Universiity. "So it was possible to do the (genetic) sequencing and then eliminate the genetic material of the bees."

The scientists' trawl revealed a diverse cargo even in healthy colonies. Eight types of bacteria appeared to be present in all bees, suggesting they perform some function useful to their hosts. The researchers also found genes from parasites, fungi, and viruses, in both healthy hives and in those which had undergone collapse. But IAPV only appeared in samples from CCD populations.

...

Also open is the question of how the virus arrived in the US. One finger of suspicion points to Australia, from where the US began importing honeybees in 2004 - the very year that CCD appeared in US hives. The researchers found IAPV in Australian bees, and they are now planning to go back through historical US samples to see if the Antipodean imports really were the first carriers.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6978848.stm

[SmokingJacket]

1. The good news is...

"The good news is that there are honey bees in Israel that are genetically resistant to IAP virus..." from a USAToday article on the same subject.

Hopefully this problem will be solved soon.

[krkaufman]

18. I'm not sure that the extinction of native North American honeybees ...

... is much of a solution.

I'd like to know who the hell thought it was such a great idea to import an alien species.

[SmokingJacket]

19. Honeybees are not native to North America.

All the bees we have are brought in from elsewhere.

That said, bringing in Australian bees JUST AS this virus was found in them was monumentally stupid.

[zonkers]

2. This is fascinating.

[PurpleChez]

3. Yes it is.

I was a small time amateur beekeeper a few years back. Absolutely fascinating stuff. I still love going to watch friends' hives. My favorite thing is to stand near the front of the hives and watch them fly into me as they take off and return...they are so focused on their work that they have no interest whatsoever in stinging you just for standing there. I haven't opened a hive in years, though. I'd have to relearn all of that. Wild stuff.

[IsItJustMe]

4. So goes the honey bees, so goes our food supply.

[mike_c]

9. not true-- only about 1/3 of human agricultural output is insect pollinated....

The staple cereals and corn are all wind pollinated. Most vegetables would be unaffected by bee declines. Only fruits and some nuts (like almonds) would be seriously affected, and other pollination options do exist, e.g. native bees. They don't produce honey though, or allow themselves to be transported around like migrant workers for capitalism.

[triguy46]

5. Explains what happened to my bees 3 years ago...

No dead bodies. It's like they slowly just disappeared. Oh well.

[lovuian]

6. Well now that they found

I hope they cure it

or we are screwed

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. Me too...

[yellowcanine]

8. We are hardly "screwed". Honeybees are not native to U.S. There are lots

of other pollinators which could/would take up the slack. In fact, the absence of honeybees may open up space for native pollinators to thrive. Some pollinators are actually better than honeybees - for example orchard bees, being smaller than honeybees, are active at lower temperatures and so are far better at pollinating apples and pears, which bloom too early for honey bees to effectively pollinate them.

[NickB79]

21. The problem is that many of our crops aren't native to the US either

And we grow them at such densities that native bee populations may simply be outnumbered by all the flowers present to pollinate a significant portion of them all. If it were as simple as letting native bees do the work, there wouldn't be a profitable business in raising honeybees and transporting them crosscountry every year for pollination work. After all, why pay for something nature does for free, unless nature can't do the job?

[mike_c]

10. this doesn't surprise me at all....

This summer a lot of data was collected regarding CCD and non-native honeybees. I'm happy to see that there is some actual evidence pointing to IAPV as at least strongly correlated with CCD-- it was tiresome listening to all the hysteria about cell phones, GMOs, imidacloprid, etc.

[Lilith Velkor]

11. I thought it was the mites

Turns out I was half right.

[Alameda]

12. Praying Mantis?

Not exactly honey bees, but has anyone has seen praying mantis this summer? Out of 3 cocoons, none have hatched yet. I spoke with someone else who has had the same results. Also, I have not seen any this year.

[PurpleChez]

15. I've seen one teeny-tiny one. That's all.

[Alameda]

17. Praying Mantis

I'm in the SF Bay area, where are you? I wonder if this thing extends to other insects.

[PurpleChez]

20. Outside Athens, GA, about 60 mi east of Atlanta

But I have to admit that I haven't been outside much this summer. 3 weeks of 100 degree temps took the joy out of summertime. The one absense I really noticed earlier in the summer was hummingbirds, but they showed up at the feeder eventually.

[Vinca]

13. Our garden has been filled with bumble bees doing the work

honey bees used to do. I hope they're resistant to the virus because we've had a great garden this year.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. I'm getting to grow fond of my bumblebees.

[Olney Blue]

14. Glad the agent has been identified. Good scientific detective work!