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| Source: Stephen Ausmus. USDA/ARS. |
In recent years, honeybees have been suffering from what scientists have called the colony collapse disorder (CCD). This is when bees leave their hives and die somewhere else, leaving a small to non-existent hive. Bees are crucial to several industries, including agriculture: "In California, the almond industry alone needs 1.3 million colonies of bees to keep going!" Apiologists, scientists who study bees, have been puzzled by this strange disorder. Many experiments have been conducted to almost no avail. Scientists have found common factors between some collapsed hives, but many of the healthy hives also had them. Results of studies have led to a large group of viruses and parasites accused of contributing to CCD, but none of the studies clearly pinpointed exactly what caused it. A research team found a virus, the invertebrate iridescent virus (IIV), and a fungus,
Nosema apis, which when found together seemed to cause CCD. Interestingly, they were found separately in healthy hives. The team did an experiment and the results showed that bees could survive normally when there was only one of the two present. Only when both the virus and fungus were put together, they could not survive. It was mentioned in the article that just because the results may make it look like they cause CCD, it may not actually be. The bees may first be infected with another disease then "
Nosema and IIV come along to deliver the
coup de grace." In order to be certain that the virus and fungus are the causes, more experiments are needed. Furthermore, because honeybees are so vital to our agriculture, researchers will continue to collect data and scientists will continue to conduct experiments to find out exactly which pathogens are causing CCD and what we should do to save the bees.
Poltrack, Katya. "Honeybee Colony Collapse."
Science Online. Facts On File,
Inc., Nov. 2010. Web. 1 Mar. 2011. <http://www.fofweb.com/
activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE40&SID=5&iPin=TSs1800120&SingleRecord=True>.
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