Virus alone may not be enough to kill bees
A honey bee on lavender.
Photo: Barney Livingston
Scientists who suggested a virus is causing the mysterious deaths of U.S. honeybees believe this virus is deadly mainly when working in conjunction with other factors.
Colony Collapse Disorder can empty a beehive in only days. In the past few years, this strange malady is thought to have killed tens of millions of U.S. bees. Using the DNA of both infected and healthy bees, a team of scientists in the summer of 2007 associated the bee die-off with a specific virus.
Diana Cox-Foster: We can’t say whether or not it was the direct cause yet, or just a very good marker.
That’s Diana Cox-Foster at Pennsylvania State University, lead author of the study. She said this same virus was found in Australian bees imported to the U.S., but Australia hasn’t experienced a bee die-off. That’s one reason scientists suspect a need for other factors working with the virus to make it so deadly. For example, Cox-Foster said, insecticides used by homeowners may weaken bees’ immune systems. Meanwhile – though decimated in numbers in the U.S. – bees remain essential to the U.S. food supply.
Diana Foster-Cox: Those apples that you’re eating depend on having adequate bees to give you that nicely rounded fruit. Or each almond depends on one single bee to come in and pollinate the tree to give you that one nut.
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Is a Virus Behind the Bee Plague?
Our thanks to:
Diana Cox-Foster
Professor of Entomology
Pennsylvania State University
“For example, Cox-Foster said, insecticides used by homeowners may weaken bees’ immune systems.” — What about the insecticides that are used by industrial farming? Though homeowner use of store-bought insecticides is probably not a good additive to a bee’s (or anyone’s) environment, I have a hard time believing that homeowner use is equally as damaging as industrial agriculture’s use.
For additional reading, try
http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/07/30/pesticide-maker-
gets-early-look-at-bee-disease-report/4540/
and
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/printerpage.php?id=1829
I would expect the Bush-Cheney White House to try to censor any information that points to the chemical industry as a cause of colony collapse in the US. The evidence has become overwhelming that Bush-Cheney need toxic industries to keep political power in DC….as Bush-Cheney have tried to silence scientists and others who warn US of the catastrophic changes of human-induced global climate change.
We need our people to stand up and speak out to stop the curse. The honeybee may seem small but the significance of it’s fall could cause massive consequences for all, even this White House. Ironically, this Bush-Cheney White House will try to hide both cause and consequences and costs from us to destroy our nation: The honeybee pollinates about 80% of our crops, meaning that famine waits for us if we don’t act honestly.
Kara, you’re probably right, and the articles are very interesting. There are many factors that might be responsible for CCD – homeowner use of insecticides is just one that people listening to the show might be able to change.
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Cox-Foster’s paper was critiqued here:
http://bee-quick.com/reprints/
Sounds like the beekeepers don’t even buy the “virus is connected”
story.
Look if we shelve common sense because someone is making a profit we are idiots and deserve to perish as a species. Pesticides are a bad product we need to pull them off the shelf – don’t use them anymore and yes the politicians/government besides getting rich individually off of the deals they swing – could regulate a few health issues for us. Regulation is not a dirty word. It’s also known as management. Industrial pesticides are not only killing bees – they are choking our waterways, contaminating our foods and bad for our soil – they are in our food chain and we are idiots – profit has to come down off of it’s number one priority perch and get shoved down the priority ladder to number 5 – somewhere after sustainability, health care, education and ethics!
Paul
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