La Vita è Bella Life is Beautiful. La Vita es Bonita. 美麗人生　

242愛的鼓勵 7訂閱站台

前幾天(8/19, Thu)晚上，按著遙控器，找一台電視節目來看，最後看了近半小時的『關鍵時刻』－－因為節目的字幕(或是標題)，讓我以為在北美與歐洲的蜜蜂神秘消失是因為以色列的生化武器。結果... 根本是胡鬧一場。這只是個極盡誇張與煽情之能的談話性節目，主持人基本上也指是不斷重複來賓所說的話，以較高的語調賦予一種較緊張的語氣，真不知道他為什麼能當上主持人？

 

我是基於以下的原因歸納出『胡鬧一場』這個結論的：

1.  認定蜜蜂神秘消失的原因為：IAPV (Israeli acute paralysis virus)所引起。－－事實上，IAPV只是嫌犯之一，並非是唯一的嫌犯。而且晚近的報導中，「東方蜂微粒子蟲」（Nosema Ceranae）是造成蜜蜂消失的原因。
2.  在字幕(標題)影射IAPV為以色列所製造的生化(基因)武器，雖然在節目裡是說：以色列發現這種病毒後，就著手研製以此種病毒穩基礎的生化武器，目的是要對付伊朗，企圖瓦解伊朗的農業。－－蜜蜂消失，只對少數需要蜜蜂傳遞花粉的水果會受影響，穀物主要是靠風來授粉，許多作物也都可以自體授粉，甚至無性生殖。－－研發這種效果極微的武器，似乎不智。但是其極進聳動之能的標題與主持人引言的影射等等效果，應該把這個節目放在「戲劇台」，而非「新聞台」。
3.  誇大蜜蜂消失的影響。
4.  節目IAPV的flash card上還用了SARS病毒的照片(上圖左邊中間那張)，張冠李戴，混淆視聽。


請參考以下的報導：

1. IAPV 只是嫌犯之一，2007.9.6 紐約時報與 Science Daily 的報導：


September 6, 2007
Scientists See Suspect in Mass Deaths of Bees
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Scientists sifting genetic material from thriving and ailing bee colonies say a virus appears to be a prime suspect — but is unlikely to be the only culprit — in the mass die-offs of honeybees reported last fall and winter.

The honeybee die-offs, in which adult bees typically vanished without returning to hives, were reported by about a fourth of the nation’s commercial beekeepers. The losses captured public attention as rumors swirled about causes ranging from climate change to cellphone signals to genetically modified crops.

Now, one bee disease, called Israeli acute paralysis virus, seems strongly associated with the beekeeping operations that experienced big losses, a large research group has concluded, although members of the team stressed that they had not proved the virus caused the die-offs.

“I hope no one goes away with the idea that we’ve actually solved the problem,” said Jeffrey S. Pettis, an entomologist with the Department of Agriculture and co-director of a national group working on the puzzle, which has been given the name colony collapse disorder.

The project involved an unusual partnership between entomologists and scientists working at the leading edge of human genetic research. It employed the same technology being used to decode Neanderthal DNA and the personal genome of James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA.

The research was described in Science Express, the online edition of the journal Science. Details are available at eurekalert.org/bees.

Even with the caveats, the possible identification of a virus involved in large bee die-offs “is exceptionally important,” said May Berenbaum, who heads the entomology department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and was not involved in the study. “Among other things, figuring out where this one came from will help us prevent future problems.”


Dr. Berenbaum, who led a 2006 National Academies study of problems with bees and other pollinators, said that finding ways to swiftly home in on novel diseases is ever more important in a globally linked economy. She noted that the first reports of the latest bee die-offs in the United States came in 2004, the same year the country allowed the first imports of honeybees from another country — in this case Australia — since 1922.

The new study found evidence of the virus in some Australian bee samples, although that country has not reported die-offs like those seen in the United States.

“Globalization clearly has had impacts on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of humans,” said Dr. Berenbaum. “Should bees be any different?

Dr. Pettis said that even if the virus is involved, it is likely that more than one factor has to align for a hive to collapse, with another possible influence being poor nutrition. Most of the colonies that had big losses over last winter were in areas that experienced drought a few months beforehand, and thus a lack of nectar in flowers, he said.

Another factor, he said, could be the stress that comes from the increasingly industrial-style beekeeping operations in the United States, in which truckloads of hives crisscross the country to pollinate California almonds or Florida orchards each season.

But the virus stands out as a top suspect. While seven viruses and a host of bacteria and parasites were identified in the genetic screening, only the Israeli bee virus, first identified in 2004, was strongly tied to the samples taken from keepers who reported the collapse disorder.

While it was first identified by scientists in Israel, the virus appears to exist in many parts of the world, said W. Ian Lipkin, one of the authors of the new study and director of the Center for Infection and Immunology of Columbia University. When the group screened some samples of Chinese imports of a bee product called royal jelly, they found evidence of the virus, as well.

In Israel, it also seems to produce bee symptoms not reported in the United States, including shivering and a pattern of finding dead bees near hives.

Dr. Lipkin, whose focus is human disease, became involved because the quest for a cause for the beehive collapses employed new genetic sifting techniques that he said might also prove useful in investigating human disease outbreaks.

One hint of the involvement of an infectious agent, he said, was the recent finding that abandoned hives sterilized with radiation could be repopulated with healthy bees. “That’s how they convinced me to do this research,” he said.

The study initially examined bees from four beekeepers who reported die-offs, as well as healthy bees from Hawaii and Pennsylvania. Genetic material was extracted and analyzed with a machine from 454 Life Sciences, a company immersed in the race to make gene-sequencing a fast, cheap technology.

Statistical analysis showed that a colony with the Israeli virus was 65 times more likely to have had the collapse disorder than one without it.

To try to clarify cause and effect, the researchers said they are preparing a new suite of tests in which isolated bee colonies are infected intentionally with the virus, both with and without possible secondary causes like certain parasites.

Dr. Lipkin acknowledged that the definition of colony collapse disorder itself was “a soft one, made by people who define the syndrome, somewhat like chronic fatigue syndrome in people.”

Still, he said, even with that human ailment, there is emerging science pointing to something being wrong biologically. In both ailing humans and bees, he said, it is plausible that a mix of infection, genetics, and environmental influences is at work.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/science/06cnd-bees.html




Virus Implicated In Colony Collapse Disorder In Bees


ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2007) — A team led by scientists from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Pennsylvania State University, the USDA Agricultural Research Service, University of Arizona, and 454 Life Sciences has found a significant connection between the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) and colony collapse disorder (CCD) in honey bees.

The findings, an important step in addressing the disorder that is decimating bee colonies across the country, are published in the journal Science.

In colony collapse disorder, honey bee colonies inexplicably lose all of their worker bees. CCD has resulted in a loss of 50-90% of colonies in beekeeping operations across the U.S. The consortium of scientists who have been studying the role of infection in this phenomenon includes Diana Cox-Foster, professor in the Department of Entomology at Pennsylvania State University, Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Jeffery Pettis, research leader of the ARS Bee Research Laboratory, and Nancy Moran, Professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Ian Lipkin, MD, professor of Epidemiology, Neurology, and Pathology at Columbia, and his team at the Mailman School's Center for Infection and Immunity, together with a team at 454 Life Sciences, used revolutionary genetic technologies, to survey microflora of CCD hives, normal hives, and imported royal jelly. Candidate pathogens were screened for significance of association with CCD by examining samples collected by the USDA and Penn State from several sites over a period of three years.

Using the 454 Life Sciences high-throughput DNA sequencing platform, and analytical methods developed at Columbia, Dr. Lipkin's team searched for footprints of viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites in thousands of sequences. Candidates were further characterized by more detailed sequence analysis to ascertain their specificity for CCD and relationship to known and unknown pathogens.

IAPV, an unclassified dicistrovirus not previously reported in the U.S. that is transmitted by the varroa mite, and Kasmir bee virus were only found in CCD hives. The researchers report that IAPV was found in all four affected operations sampled, in two of four royal jelly samples, and in the Australian sample. KBV was present in three of four CCD operations, but not in the royal jelly. One organism was significantly correlated with CCD: finding IAPV in a bee sample correctly distinguished CCD from non-CCD status 96.1 percent of the time.

"This is a powerful new strategy for looking at outbreaks of infectious disease and finding cause. Dr. Cox-Foster recruited us into this project, making a persuasive case for applying our state-of-the-art methods for differential diagnosis of infectious disease in humans, to this challenge in agricultural epidemiology," said Dr. Lipkin. "The profound synergy within the group--bringing entomology, microbiology, and bioinformatics together--enabled us to work toward a solution to this extraordinarily complex problem."

This is the first report of IAPV in the United States. IAPV was first described in 2004 in Israel where infected bees presented with shivering wings, progressed to paralysis and then died just outside the hive. Importation to the U.S. of bees from Australia began in 2004, coinciding with early reports of unusual colony declines.

IAPV was found in non-CCD hives in some cases, which could reflect strain variation, co-infection, or the presence of other stressors, such as pesticides or poor nutrition. The varroa mite, for example, absent in Australia, immunosuppresses bees making them more susceptible to infection by other organisms, including viruses. Other stressors may include chemical pesticides used on plants pollinated by bees and in hives to control pests.

"Our results indicate that IAPV is a significant marker for CCD. This discovery may be helpful in identifying hives at risk for disease. The next step is to ascertain whether IAPV, alone or in concert with other factors, can induce CCD in healthy bees," added Dr. Lipkin.

Bees play an integral role in the world food supply, and are essential for the pollination of over 90 fruit and vegetable crops worldwide, with the economic value of these agricultural products placed at more than $14.6 billion in the U.S. In addition to agricultural crops, honey bees also pollinate many native plants within the ecosystem. Recently, the increased deaths in bee colonies due to CCD seriously threaten the ability of the bee industry to meet the pollination needs of fruit and vegetable producers in the U.S.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070906140803.htm



2. 除了IAPV外，其他種可能的因素在這些報導中有提及，像是營養不良，大規模商業養殖所帶來的壓力。另外在較近的報導中（引用於下），又提到在專業養蜂場（蜂房）中已經確認造成蜜蜂大量消失的原因是一種叫蜂微孢子蟲（Nosema ceranae）的寄生蟲所引起，並排除IAPV，為造成蜜蜂大量消失的原因。


Cure For Honey Bee Colony Collapse?


Beekeeper with honeycomb. (Credit: iStockphoto/Kamilla Mathisen)

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2009) — For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.


In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides), other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies.

The loss of honey bees could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact worldwide. Honeybees are important pollinators of crops, fruit and wild flowers and are indispensable for a sustainable and profitable agriculture as well as for the maintenance of the non-agricultural ecosystem. Honeybees are attacked by numerous pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites.

For most of these diseases, the molecular pathogenesis is poorly understood, hampering the development of new ways to prevent and combat honeybee diseases. So, any progress made in identifying causes and subsequent treatments of honey bee colony collapse is invaluable. There have been other hypothesis for colony collapse in Europe and the USA, but never has this bug been identified as the primary cause in professional apiaries.

“Now that we know one strain of parasite that could be responsible, we can look for signs of infection and treat any infected colonies before the infection spreads” said Dr Higes, principle researcher.

This finding could help prevent the continual decline in honey bee population which has recently been seen in Europe and the USA


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090414084627.htm


作者:駐法科技組
文章來源:http://www.adn.es/tecnologia/20070723/NWS-0426-occidentales-mermando-parasito-abejas.html
發佈時間:2007/10/4

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西班牙科學家近日提出一項研究成果，證實亞洲蜂群中常見的一種寄生蟲現已蔓延至歐洲和美洲，而這種來自亞洲的寄生蟲也正是導致很多國家蜜蜂大規模消失的罪魁禍首。

提出這項研究成果的是西班牙科學家MarianoHiges。過去數年中，MarianoHiges於西班牙蜂業重鎮瓜達拉哈拉（Guadalajara）省一所國家資助的農業研究中心率領一組研究團隊，針對導致蜜蜂罹患疾病的原因進行研究。MarianoHiges發現，造成許多國家蜜蜂罹患疾病乃至於大規模消失的元兇，是一種名為「東方蜂微粒子蟲」（nosemaceranae）的微小寄生蟲。

MarianoHiges的研究團隊分析了來自許多國家染病蜂房中數以千計的病例，並於2000年提出假設，認為殺蟲劑為此一現象之導火線，但該假設很快地被證實無關，並予以排除。研究團隊隨後也排除是蜂蝨（varroa mite）作祟，因多數染病個例中並未發現此一易見的蟲子。

之後，研究團隊追蹤微孢子蟲的DNA，發現病源是來自亞洲的一種變種「東方蜂微粒子蟲」。來自奧地利、斯洛維尼亞與東歐其它國家的蜜蜂中，研究人員發現了同樣的寄生蟲，並且推斷其來自亞洲，在過去數年間向歐洲進行侵襲。亞洲蜂群對該蟲的免疫力較強，但在實驗室條件下，這種寄生蟲僅僅在幾天的時間內便讓歐洲蜂種死亡。

MarianoHiges強調說道：「這種東方蜂微粒子蟲的危害十分地嚴重，因為無論寒冷或炎熱的環境牠都能夠生存。大約只需2個月就可以摧毀一個蜂巢，而大約6到18個月就可以摧毀一整座蜂房。我們相信導火線是東方蜂微粒子蟲，同時也推斷西班牙有將近50%蜂房都已經感染這種寄生蟲」。西班牙目前擁有2300萬座蜂房，蜂蜜的產量佔所有歐盟國家的25％。

研究團隊也根據現有的病例推斷，這種寄生蟲目前已經橫越大西洋，向美洲大陸進行侵襲，並且已在加拿大與阿根廷等地出現。研究團隊受限於樣本取得不足，並未針對美國的受害情形進行研究。

MarianoHiges研究團隊多年來已經發表了許多的研究論文，希望能引起更多的重視。MarianoHiges表示，要針對「東方蜂微粒子蟲」進行防治工作，所需的花費其實相當地低廉，每個蜂巢每年大約只需投入一歐元的費用即可進行防治工作，而且防治的成效相當好，可說是「物美價廉」，然首要之務，在於如何說服蜂房主人願意斥資投入防治工作則。

http://france.nsc.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=0960928032&ctNode=625&lang=C



3. 蜜蜂消失對整體農業的影響較預期小很多，但是對蜂農而言影響至鉅。



March 25, 2010
Op-Ed Contributors
Too-Busy Bees
By MARCELO AIZEN and LAWRENCE HARDER

IN the past five years, as the phenomenon known as colony-collapse disorder has spread across the United States and Europe, causing the disappearance of whole colonies of domesticated honeybees, many people have come to fear that our food supply is in peril. The news on Wednesday that a Department of Agriculture survey found that American honeybees had died in great numbers this winter can only add to such fears.

The truth, fortunately, is not nearly so dire. But it is more complicated.

There is good news: While some areas are seeing a shortage of bees, globally the number of domesticated honeybee colonies is increasing. The bad news is that this increase can’t keep up with our growing appetite for luxury foods that depend heavily on bee pollination. The domesticated honeybee isn’t the only pollinator that agriculture relies on — wild bees also play a significant role, and we seem intent on destroying their habitats.

To understand the problem, we need to understand the extent of the honeybee’s role in agriculture. Humans certainly benefit from the way bees — and to a lesser extent, other pollinators like flies, beetles and butterflies — help plants produce fruits and seeds. Agriculture, however, is not as dependent on pollinators as one might think. It’s true that some crops like raspberries, cashews, cranberries and mangoes cannot reproduce without pollinators. But crops like sugar cane and potatoes, grown for their stems or tubers, can be propagated without pollination. And the crops that provide our staple carbohydrates — wheat, rice and corn — are either wind-pollinated or self-pollinated. These don’t need bees at all.


Overall, about one-third of our worldwide agricultural production depends to some extent on bee pollination, but less than 10 percent of the 100 most productive crop species depend entirely on it. If pollinators were to vanish, it would reduce total food production by only about 6 percent.

This wouldn’t mean the end of human existence, but if we want to continue eating foods like apples and avocados, we need to understand that bees and other pollinators can’t keep up with the current growth in production of these foods.

The reason is that fruit and seed crops that are most dependent on pollinators yield relatively little food per acre, and therefore take up an inordinate, and increasing, amount of land. The fraction of agriculture dependent on pollination has increased by 300 percent in half a century.

The paradox is that our demand for these foods endangers the wild bees that help make their cultivation possible. The expansion of farmland destroys wild bees’ nesting sites and also wipes out the wildflowers that the bees depend on when food crops aren’t in blossom. Researchers in Britain and the Netherlands have found that the diversity of wild bee species in most regions in those countries has declined since 1980. This decrease was mostly due to the loss of bees that require very particular habitats — bees that couldn’t adapt after losing their homes and food sources to cultivation. Similarly, between 1940 and 1960, as land increasingly came under cultivation in the American Midwest, several bumblebee species disappeared from the area. It is difficult to count and keep track of wild bee populations globally, but their numbers are probably declining overall as a result of such human activity.

Even if the number of wild pollinators remained stable, it would not be sufficient to meet the increasing demand for agricultural pollination. Could domesticated bees take up the slack? By looking at data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, we found that the number of managed honeybee hives increased by 45 percent during the past five decades.

Unfortunately, this increase cannot counteract the growing demand for pollination or the shortage of wild pollinators. Domesticated bees mainly produce honey; any contribution they make to crop pollination is usually a secondary benefit. In most parts of the world, they provide pollination only locally and not necessarily where it is needed most.

Thus a vicious cycle: Fewer pollinating bees reduce yield per acre — and lower yield requires cultivation of more land to produce the same amount of food.

Eventually, a growing shortage of pollinators will limit what foods farmers can produce. If we want to continue to enjoy almonds, apples and avocados, we have to cultivate fewer of them, more sustainably, and protect the wild bees that help make their production possible.

Marcelo Aizen is a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina. Lawrence Harder is a professor of pollination ecology at the University of Calgary.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/opinion/25harder.html



October 21, 2008
Observatory
Shortage of Pollinators Is Not Affecting Crops, at Least for Now
By HENRY FOUNTAIN

In recent years, the worldwide decline in pollinators has been big news in agriculture. The collapse of honeybee populations, which is still poorly understood, has gotten the most press, but more broadly there is evidence of declines among other pollinators.

Since many fruits, seeds and vegetables depend to varying extents upon pollination by insects or birds, agricultural experts have become concerned that a decline in pollinators may lead to a decrease in crop yields.

For those experts, there’s good news and bad news in a study by Marcelo A. Aizen of the National University of Comahue in Argentina and colleagues. On a global scale, the researchers report in Current Biology, pollinator shortages are not affecting crop yields. But there could be problems in the future because, the researchers say, the amount of acreage being devoted to pollinator-dependent crops is increasing.

The researchers analyzed 45 years of Food and Agricultural Organization data for pollinator-dependent crops like fruits, nuts and seeds and nondependent crops like many grains and root vegetables. Over all since 1961, yields have increased consistently by about 1.5 percent a year, and in looking at trends over time, the researchers found little difference between pollinator-dependent and nondependent crops in either the developed or developing worlds.

They did find that the proportion of pollinator-dependent crops increased greatly over the decades — to 23 percent of total agricultural production in 2006 from 14 percent in 1961. So if pollinators keep declining, the shortage may eventually have an impact.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/opinion/25harder.html




February 27, 2007
Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

VISALIA, Calif., Feb. 23 — David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing.

In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable.

“I have never seen anything like it,” Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. “Box after box after box are just empty. There’s nobody home.”

The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country.

Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first national affliction.

Now, in a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold.

As researchers scramble to find answers to the syndrome they have decided to call “colony collapse disorder,” growers are becoming openly nervous about the capability of the commercial bee industry to meet the growing demand for bees to pollinate dozens of crops, from almonds to avocados to kiwis.

Along with recent stresses on the bees themselves, as well as on an industry increasingly under consolidation, some fear this disorder may force a breaking point for even large beekeepers.

A Cornell University study has estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. “Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food,” said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

The bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent; beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the offseason to be normal.

Beekeepers are the nomads of the agriculture world, working in obscurity in their white protective suits and frequently trekking around the country with their insects packed into 18-wheelers, looking for pollination work.

Once the domain of hobbyists with a handful of backyard hives, beekeeping has become increasingly commercial and consolidated. Over the last two decades, the number of beehives, now estimated by the Agriculture Department to be 2.4 million, has dropped by a quarter and the number of beekeepers by half.

Pressure has been building on the bee industry. The costs to maintain hives, also known as colonies, are rising along with the strain on bees of being bred to pollinate rather than just make honey. And beekeepers are losing out to suburban sprawl in their quest for spots where bees can forage for nectar to stay healthy and strong during the pollination season.

“There are less beekeepers, less bees, yet more crops to pollinate,” Mr. Browning said. “While this sounds sweet for the bee business, with so much added loss and expense due to disease, pests and higher equipment costs, profitability is actually falling.”

Some 15 worried beekeepers convened in Florida this month to brainstorm with researchers how to cope with the extensive bee losses. Investigators are exploring a range of theories, including viruses, a fungus and poor bee nutrition.

They are also studying a group of pesticides that were banned in some European countries to see if they are somehow affecting bees’ innate ability to find their way back home.

It could just be that the bees are stressed out. Bees are being raised to survive a shorter offseason, to be ready to pollinate once the almond bloom begins in February. That has most likely lowered their immunity to viruses.

Mites have also damaged bee colonies, and the insecticides used to try to kill mites are harming the ability of queen bees to spawn as many worker bees. The queens are living half as long as they did just a few years ago.

Researchers are also concerned that the willingness of beekeepers to truck their colonies from coast to coast could be adding to bees’ stress, helping to spread viruses and mites and otherwise accelerating whatever is afflicting them.

Dennis van Engelsdorp, a bee specialist with the state of Pennsylvania who is part of the team studying the bee colony collapses, said the “strong immune suppression” investigators have observed “could be the AIDS of the bee industry,” making bees more susceptible to other diseases that eventually kill them off.

Growers have tried before to do without bees. In past decades, they have used everything from giant blowers to helicopters to mortar shells to try to spread pollen across the plants. More recently researchers have been trying to develop “self-compatible” almond trees that will require fewer bees. One company is even trying to commercialize the blue orchard bee, which is virtually stingless and works at colder temperatures than the honeybee.

Beekeepers have endured two major mite infestations since the 1980s, which felled many hobbyist beekeepers, and three cases of unexplained disappearing disorders as far back as 1894. But those episodes were confined to small areas, Mr. van Engelsdorp said.

Today the industry is in a weaker position to deal with new stresses. A flood of imported honey from China and Argentina has depressed honey prices and put more pressure on beekeepers to take to the road in search of pollination contracts. Beekeepers are trucking tens of billions of bees around the country every year.

California’s almond crop, by far the biggest in the world, now draws more than half of the country’s bee colonies in February. The crop has been both a boon to commercial beekeeping and a burden, as pressure mounts for the industry to fill growing demand. Now spread over 580,000 acres stretched across 300 miles of California’s Central Valley, the crop is expected to grow to 680,000 acres by 2010.

Beekeepers now earn many times more renting their bees out to pollinate crops than in producing honey. Two years ago a lack of bees for the California almond crop caused bee rental prices to jump, drawing beekeepers from the East Coast.

This year the price for a bee colony is about $135, up from $55 in 2004, said Joe Traynor, a bee broker in Bakersfield, Calif.

A typical bee colony ranges from 15,000 to 30,000 bees. But beekeepers’ costs are also on the rise. In the past decade, fuel, equipment and even bee boxes have doubled and tripled in price.

The cost to control mites has also risen, along with the price of queen bees, which cost about $15 each, up from $10 three years ago.

To give bees energy while they are pollinating, beekeepers now feed them protein supplements and a liquid mix of sucrose and corn syrup carried in tanker-sized trucks costing $12,000 per load. Over all, Mr. Bradshaw figures, in recent years he has spent $145 a hive annually to keep his bees alive, for a profit of about $11 a hive, not including labor expenses. The last three years his net income has averaged $30,000 a year from his 4,200 bee colonies, he said.

“A couple of farmers have asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’ ” Mr. Bradshaw said. “I ask myself the same thing. But it is a job I like. It is a lifestyle. I work with my dad every day. And now my son is starting to work with us.”

Almonds fetch the highest prices for bees, but if there aren’t enough bees to go around, some growers may be forced to seek alternatives to bees or change their variety of trees.

“It would be nice to know that we have a dependable source of honey bees,” said Martin Hein, an almond grower based in Visalia. “But at this point I don’t know that we have that for the amount of acres we have got.”

To cope with the losses, beekeepers have been scouring elsewhere for bees to fulfill their contracts with growers. Lance Sundberg, a beekeeper from Columbus, Mont., said he spent $150,000 in the last two weeks buying 1,000 packages of bees — amounting to 14 million bees — from Australia.

He is hoping the Aussie bees will help offset the loss of one-third of the 7,600 hives he manages in six states. “The fear is that when we mix the bees the die-offs will continue to occur,” Mr. Sundberg said.

Migratory beekeeping is a lonely life that many compare to truck driving. Mr. Sundberg spends more than half the year driving 20 truckloads of bees around the country. In Terra Bella, an hour south of Visalia, Jack Brumley grimaced from inside his equipment shed as he watched Rosa Patiño use a flat tool to scrape dried honey from dozens of beehive frames that once held bees. Some 2,000 empty boxes — which once held one-third of his total hives — were stacked to the roof.

Beekeepers must often plead with landowners to allow bees to be placed on their land to forage for nectar. One large citrus grower has pushed for California to institute a “no-fly zone” for bees of at least two miles to prevent them from pollinating a seedless form of Mandarin orange.

But the quality of forage might make a difference. Last week Mr. Bradshaw used a forklift to remove some of his bee colonies from a spot across a riverbed from orange groves. Only three of the 64 colonies there have died or disappeared.

“It will probably take me two to three more years to get back up,” he said. “Unless I spend gobs of money I don’t have.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html



April 28, 2009
Group Sounds Alarm on European Bee Industry
By REUTERS

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — Europe’s beekeeping industry could be wiped out in less than a decade as bees fall victim to disease, insecticides and intensive farming, the international beekeeping body Apimondia said on Monday.

“With this level of mortality, European beekeepers can only survive another 8 to 10 years,” Gilles Ratia, the president of Apimondia, told Reuters.

“We have had big problems in southwest France for many years,” he said, but the problem had extended to Italy and Germany.

Last year, about 30 percent of Europe’s 13.6 million hives died, according to Apimondia figures. Losses reached 50 percent in Slovenia and as high as 80 percent in southwest Germany.

About 35 percent of European food crops rely on bees to pollinate them, Mr. Ratia said, and the deaths pose a big threat for farmers.

“It is a complete crisis,” said Francesco Panella, who tends about 1,000 hives in the Piedmont region of Italy. “Last year, I lost about half my production. I can’t survive more than two or three more years like this.”

Mystery has surrounded the recent decline in the bee population. Most keepers blame modern farming methods and the pesticides used on crops like sunflower and rapeseed.

French honey output has suffered in intensive sunflower-farming areas, said Henri Clement, president of the French beekeeping union, but has remained steady in mountains and chestnut forests.

Apimondia’s scientific coordinator, Gerard Arnold, cites two main factors responsible for weakening bee colonies: insecticides and the parasitic mite Varroa. Once weakened, Mr. Arnold said, the hives were then wiped out by other diseases.

The European Union voted this year to phase out the most toxic pesticides after years of wrangling, but beekeepers still say that they are ignored by politicians. “If cattle were producing 30 percent less milk each year, it would not be acceptable,” said Josef Stich, who keeps 200 hives near Vienna.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/world/europe/28bees.html