Home » Blogs » Sal Peralta's blog

American honeybee population down 60% in 2 years, reseachers baffled

Submitted by Sal Peralta on Sun, 03/30/2008 - 14:40.

During the last two years, 50 percent of hives and 60 percent of the honey bee population in the United States has died due to what scientists are calling "colony collapse disorder".
Despite the severity of this crisis, there is no known cause for colony collapse disorder. Some Researchers have postulated that a parasite called Nosema ceranae, might be responsible. Others have suggested that the problem is viral. Still others have suggested that radiation from cell phones may be responsible.
This poses potentially huge social, economic, and horticultural repercussions, as bees are directly responsible for 30 percent of food crops grown in the United States --and essentially all plant life that relies on pollenation for reproduction.
Worse, the problem is not merely limited to the United States.
Here's a news story on a similar this week from Pakistan:

Mandikere Pakistan - The bee keeping industry in Madikere region in Karnataka has suffered a setback with honey bees succumbing in large numbers to an unidentified disease, mainly in Bhagamandala, Galibeedu, Kalur and Suriabbi villages.
The outbreak of the disease comes at a time when the bee industry was limping back to normal after a setback,owing to the `Thai sac brood disease', which severely impacted the industry a few years ago.

And another from Australia:

Sydney, Ausralia - Australian farmers are facing a shortage of bees to pollinate their food crops and are working with beekeepers to develop an emergency plan.
Many crops, such as fruit and vegetables, rely heavily on free pollination by wild European honey bees.
But these are under threat from the Varroa mite, says Dr Max Whitten, former CSIRO chief of entomology, who is involved in the plan.

On the plus side, researchers at San Francisco State University have launched a project to encourage the public to begin studying the behaviour of honeybees to help research the problem. Visit www,greatsunflower.org for details.

»