CREDIT: PHOTOS.COM
Beekeepers in 26 states have lost up to 50% of their colonies this winter to a mysterious ailment scientists are struggling to understand.
Dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the malady began late last fall, but the extent of the problem became clear only in January. Afflicted bees stop tending their broods and eventually abandon their colonies. Unlike previous die-offs due to pesticides, bee corpses aren't turning up around hive entrances. "They just disappear," says Sacramento beekeeper Franklin Carrier.
To tackle the problem, scientists around the country have set up a CCD working group that is scanning for novel pathogens with gene chips and using neural networks to analyze the buzz at infected hives--which the U.S. Army has found to provide an early indication of airborne toxins. Researchers are also looking at bee genes to see whether Cape honeybees from Africa may have infiltrated U.S. populations. Cape females produce their own young rather than tending to the queen's brood, causing the social structure to collapse.
So far, no prime suspect has emerged. Entomologist Diana Cox-Foster of Pennsylvania State University in State College thinks a toxin may be implicated, because wax-worms and neighboring bees are not invading deserted hives.
CCD is only the latest in a string of misfortunes to hit commercial honeybees weakened by varroa mites and infections. The working group hopes to have an explanation by June. Time is of the essence: Bees provide 80% of the country's pollination services, and the almond trees are already in bloom.
