Most
people believe that honeybees are just bugs that fly flower to flower, stinging
whomever happens to walk into their path to the nearest flower. Bees actually
place one of the most vital roles in modern day society. They account for 80%
of all the pollination done in agriculture (backyard). If you are still not
convinced, picture sitting at the dinner table and one third of all the food on
the table disappeared. Bees do their part in the agricultural process by
spreading pollen between flowers as they are blooming in the spring. Pollen is
the male reproductive cell that all flower plants produce. As they fly from
flower to flower, the pollen sticks to the bees and then steals a ride to
whichever flower the honeybee goes to next. The pollen, which is one of the most
nutritious substances in nature, is then used as a fuel source for the hive.
However, since 2006 the beekeepers have noticed a sharp decline in their bee
populations. This is a major problem because the estimated $40 billion
agriculture business depends on these bees so that they can start growing crops
again (Hagopian). Their sudden die off is causing a major buzz in the science
community because they cannot determine a concrete cause for this issue. There
are many different factors that can cause this die off, and there is now
extensive effort to solve this problem because of their importance.
One
of the major factors that scientists are looking at is the disease called
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Colony Collapse Disorder is describe as the
sudden disappearance of worker bees from the hive, even though there are babies
to tend to, a queen, and ample honey supplies for them to feed on (Stankus). In
the winter of 2006 to spring 2007, farmers noticed a loss of more than a
quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies, which was attributed to CCD
(pbs). Considering that in the winter months a honeybee colony has anywhere
from 20,000 to 30,000 worker bees plus the queen, that means that there was a decline
of tens of billions of individuals (backyard). These staggering numbers have
caused an increase number of studies dedicated to the subject over the recent
years. In the five years from 2008-2013, there was an increased amount of
scholarly journals on the subject coming from different subjects of science. For
example, 21% of the 140 references found in the study by Tony Stankus come from
multiscience journal, an increase from 5% of the 192 articles used in his 1917
to 2007 study. Previously two-thirds of the references came from entomology
journals, whereas in the new study the number is now down to 36%. The increased
diversity of sciences studying this issue highlights the present danger. As the
amount of information on CCD increases, the factors that cause this disease are
slowly being narrowed down. Even though there are no pin-pointed causes, the
scientific community has come to a general consensus that no single factor can
be determined the sole cause, but a combination of many factors.
The recent studies reflect the general belief for the
main factors that all attribute to CCD. These journals focus on; viruses and
how they affect the bees, low nutrition diets, toxins in the environment, and
the dreaded Varroa mite. The most
extensively studied virus is called Isreali Acute Paralytic Virus (IAPV). Symptoms
of this virus are paralysis of bees, lower populations per hive, and premature
dark coloring, all of which can indicate hive decline. Scientists have found
IAPV present in bee populations from all over the world including China,
Jordan, and Spain. It was found that when compared to IAPV-free bees, the bees
that were infected had “significantly lower rates of homing”, which is the
ability for the insect to find its way back to the hive. The infected
population also showed a tendency to settle for food sources that contained
lower concentrations of sugar. This behavior was not seen in healthy bees, in
fact the healthy bees would not consume the diluted solutions at all, but they
would continue to search for sugar-rich sources (Stankus). This behavior
supports the hypothesis that the infected individuals are less efficient in
hunting for food, or just desperate due to the ratio of energy spent to energy
gained. The continued consumption of low amounts of food may lead to the
eventual demise of the bee. Another virus that is rampant in bees is the
Deformed wing virus (DWV). DWV causes bee larvae to have underdeveloped wings
as adults and therefore cannot fly, which effects their ability to do their function
as bees. Scientists have found evidence that honeybees have inherently weak
immune systems that have “no measureable immunological response” to the
presence of Acute Bee Paralyic Virus (ABPV), a genetically similar virus to
IAPV. This makes honeybees more
susceptible to pathogens such as the IAPV and DFV viruses.
No comments:
Post a Comment