Honey Bee death

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Our food supply is in major trouble because of the loss of honeybees which pollinate our food crops. Read the serious threats we face, and make your voice heard.

Proof Bees Dying
From GM Crops?
5-12-7

LONDON (AFP) - Research by a leading German zoologist has shown that genes used to genetically modify crops can jump the species barrier, newspapers reported here on Sunday. A three-year study by Professor Hans-Heinrich Kaatz at the University of Jena found that the gene used to modify oil-seed rape had transferred to bacteria living inside honey bees. The findings will undermine claims by the biotech industry and supporters of GM foods that genes cannot spread.

They will also increase pressure on farmers across Europe to destroy fields of oil-seed rape contaminated with GM seeds. In an interview for The Observer newspaper, Kaatz said: "I have found the herbicide-resistant genes in the rapeseed transferred across to the bacteria and yeast inside the intestines of young bees. This happened rarely, but it did happen." Asked if his findings had implications for the bacteria inside the human gut, Kaatz replied: "Maybe, but I am not an expert on this."

The Observer said Kaatz was reluctant to talk about his work until it is officially published and reviewed by fellow scientists. The reports come a day after Britain's Agriculture Minister Nick Brown urged farmers to destroy crops contaminated with genetically modified seeds. Up to 600 farmers in Britain are believed to have inadvertently planted more than 30,000 acres of oilseed rape contaminated with GM rape seeds, supplied by Anglo-Dutch seed company Advanta. Similar crops have been planted elsewhere in Europe, including in France, Germany and Sweden. The French and Swedish governments have already announced they are ordering the uprooting of the crops.

Modified Crop Genes 'Jump The Species Barrier'

By AnthonyBarnett
Public Affairs Editor - The Observer

A leading zoologist has found evidence that genes used to modify crops can jump the species barrier and cause bacteria to mutate, prompting fears that GM technology could pose serious health risks.

A four-year study by Professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a respected German zoologist, found that the alien gene used to modify oilseed rape had transferred to bacteria living inside the guts of honey bees.

The research - which has yet to be published and has not been reviewed by fellow scientists - is highly significant because it suggests that all types of bacteria could become contaminated by genes used in genetically modified technology, including those that live inside the human digestive system. If this happened, it could have an impact on the bacteria's vital role in helping the human body fight disease, aid digestion and facilitate blood clotting.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown, who was yesterday advising farmers who have accidentally grown contaminated GM oilseed rape in Britain to rip up their crops, confirmed the potential significance of Kaatz's research. He said: 'If this is true, then it would be very serious.'

The 47-year-old Kaatz has been reluctant to talk about his research until it has been published in a scientific journal, because he fears a backlash from the scientific community similar to that faced by Dr Arpad Pustzai, who claimed that genetically modified potatoes damaged the stomach lining of rats. Pustzai was sacked and had his work discredited.

But in his first newspaper interview, Kaatz told The Observer: 'It is true, I have found the herbicide-resistant genes in the rapeseed transferred across to the bacteria and yeast inside the intestines of young bees. This happened rarely, but it did happen.' Although Kaatz realised the potential 'significance' of his findings, he said he 'was not surprised' at the results. Asked if this had implications for the bacteria inside the human gut, he said: 'Maybe, but I am not an expert on this.' Dr Mae-Wan Ho, geneticist at Open University and a critic of GM technology, has no doubts about the dangers. She said: 'These findings are very worrying and provide the first real evidence of what many have feared. Everybody is keen to exploit GM technology, but nobody is looking at the risk of horizontal gene transfer.

'We are playing about with genetic structures that existed for millions of years and the experiment is running out of control.' One of the biggest concerns is if the anti-biotic resistant gene used in some GM crops crossed over to bacteria. 'If this happened it would leave us unable to treat major illnesses like meningitis and E coli .'

Kaatz, who works at the respected Institute for Bee Research at the University of Jena in Germany, built nets in a field planted with genetically modified rapeseed produced by AgrEvo. He let the bees fly freely within the net. At the beehives, he installed pollen traps in order to sample the pollen from the bees' hindlegs when entering the hive. This pollen was fed to young honey bees in the laboratory. Pollen is the natural diet of young bees, which need a high protein diet. Kaatz then extracted the intestine of the young bees and discovered that the gene from the GM rape-seed had been transferred in the bee gut to the microbes.

Professor Robert Pickard, director-general of the Institute of the British Nutrition Foundation, is a bee expert as well as being a biologist and has visited the institute where Kaatz works. He said: 'There is no doubt that, if Kaatz's research is substantiated, then it poses very interesting questions and will need to be looked at very closely. 'But it must be remembered that the human body has been coping perfectly well with strange DNA for millions of years. And we also know many people have been eating GM products for years without showing any signs of ill health.' (link to www.rense.com)

Gene transfer to bacteria inside the bees intestine. Maybe that's a contributing factor in their disappearance.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/05/bees_ani.html

Honey Bee Die-off Alarms Beekeepers

Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News

Feb. 5, 2007 Something is wiping out honey bees across North America and a team of researchers is rushing to find out what it is.

What's being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has now been seen in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and way out in California. Some bee keepers have lost up to 80 percent of their colonies to the mysterious disorder.

"Those are quite scary numbers," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's lead apiarist. Whatever kills the bees targets adult workers which die outside the colony with few adults left inside, either alive or dead. The disorder decimates the worker bee population in a matter of weeks.

Aside from making honey, honey bees are essential for the pollination of tens of million of dollars worth of cash crops all over the United States. That's why almond growers of California, for instance, are taking notice and pledging funds to help identify and fight the honey bee disorder.

Among the possible culprits are a fungus, virus, or a variety of microbes and pesticides. No one knows just yet. On first inspection, the pattern of die-offs resembles something that has been seen in more isolated cases in Louisiana, Texas and Australia, vanEngelsdorp said.

"Right now our efforts are on collecting as many samples as possible," said vanEngelsdorp. Bees that are collected are carefully disected and analyzed to see what might have killed them.

Other researchers are keeping track of the problem using Google Earth, as well as cutting edge hive-sniffing and eavesdropping technology to investigate the problem.

"We're trying to sort out the myriad of variables," said Jerry Bromenshank of the University of Montana and Bee Alert Technology, Inc. "We've sent teams to Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, and California. The scenario was about exactly the same everywhere we looked."

The locations of the bees are put on a global database to see it there is any geographic pattern. Bromenshank also uses a groundbreaking audio analysis technique that allows them to hear specific changes in bee colony sounds when specific chemicals are present. Chemical air sampling in hives is also being planned, he said.

Just how bad the bee problem is right now is unknown, since the first cases came at the end of 2006 and many colonies in northern states are not active yet.

As spring awakens honey bee colonies, it will be vital that beekeepers send information to the scientists, regardless of how well or poorly their bee colonies are faring, said Bromenshank. For that purpose the scientists have put together a confidential beekeeper survey on their Website, http://maarec.org.

"Beekeepers overwintering in the north may not know the status of their colonies until they are able to make early spring inspections," said Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. "This should occur in late February or early March.

"Regardless, there is little doubt that honey bees are going to be in short supply this spring and possibly into the summer."

"The beekeeper's biggest enemy in recent years, however, has been a miniature, blood-red arachnid called the varroa mite. A remarkably adaptive, ticklike creature, the mite burrows into unborn brood and adults alike, feeding, as a tick does, on the bee's body fluids. It is, said Miller, a "sinister predation" that slowly saps the strength and vigor from a hive, either killing the brood outright or causing deformities that weaken adult bees and make them more susceptible to viruses. And this mite is besides labor, pasture, honey prices, pollination prices, bacteria, fungi, unpleasant neighbors and other invading insects what beekeepers think most about these days. "This is going to be the challenge of my career, there is no question about that. My grandfather never heard of it; my dad was barely aware of it; it occupies much of my problem-solving time. This varroa mite," said Miller, "swaggers like a colossus across beekeeping in North America."

Beekeeper John Miller readies his hives for the season.

The parasite, which is endemic to Asia, first arrived on U.S. shores in 1987, most likely smuggled in some eager apiarist's luggage. (Bee importation has been illegal in this country since 1922.) It caused negligible damage in Europe, where it first appeared in 1908, because the beekeeping industry is smaller and far less mobile. In the U.S., however, the mite jumped from hive to hive with alarming rapidity. "In the U.S., beekeepers are a bunch of mechanized gypsies, moving from crop to crop all through the year chasing pollination fees and honey flows," said Frank Eischen, a U.S. Department of Agriculture research entomologist tasked with searching for new medicines to keep the invaders at bay. "Because of all this unnatural movement, some colonies get stressed, and they may be more susceptible."

During the first wave of infestation, the varroa killed nearly every feral colony on the continent. Well-kept colonies like Miller's, however, escaped major damage, because application of a common miticide kept the bug in check. Over the course of the next decade, though, the mites developed resistance to that treatment.

read the full article here - "The Silence of the Bees"

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=16891

March 3, 1999

DEATH OF HONEY BEE POPULATION PROMPTS DRASTIC MEASURES

Writer: Kathleen Phillips (979) 845-2872,ka-phillips@tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Ray Frisbie, (979) 845-2516,rfris@tamu.edu
Dr. Bob Coulson, (979) 845-9725,r-coulson@tamu.edu
Dr. Rodney Holloway, (409) 862-1385,rholloway@tamu.edu

Photo

COLLEGE STATION -- About 90 percent of the wild honey bees have died and managed hives have declined by 50 percent -- signaling trouble for Texas produce and wildflowers this spring.

The disappearance of honey bees -- the major pollinator of flowering plants -- could greatly reduce production of some 90 Texas crops causing economic losses and shortages of fruits and vegetables, industry officials say.

But a cooperative effort by state and federal agencies joined by local beekeepers and commodity groups hopes to turn the situation around with research and education. They've written a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Honey Bee Protection and Management Initiative calling for $1.4 million over the next two years from the Texas Legislature.

"The goal of the program is to ensure that the goods and services provided by the activities of honey bees are protected and enhanced for the benefit of Texas citizens and our agriculture enterprise," said Dr. Ray Frisbie, head of Texas A&M University's entomology department.

Honeybees have died off in Texas -- as well as much of the rest of the nation -- due to an invasion of varroa mites, a tiny species that feeds on the blood of honey bees. That deadly parasite comes on the heels of an infestation in 1984 of tracheal mites followed by the invasion of Africanized honey bees and the dumping of Chinese honey on the U.S. market.

"As a result of these events, the number of commercial resident honey bee colonies has dropped in Texas from about 200,000 in 1985 to less than 100,000 today," Frisbie explained.

Control of the mites in hives managed by beekeepers has proven difficult, according to Dr. Rodney Holloway, Texas Agricultural Extension Service pesticide assessment specialist.

"Few chemical pesticides are effective against the mites and yet harmless to honey bees and safe for humans," Holloway said.

The scientists and beekeepers seeking the initiative say research is needed to find ways to control the mites, the single most important problem facing beekeepers.

"The value of pollination of these cultivated crops by managed colonies of bees is estimated to be $487 million," said Dr. John Thomas, Texas Beekeepers Association executive secretary.

In addition to commercial crops, researchers say that wild honey bees are vital to nature because the pollination of flowering plants provides food and habitat for wildlife and vegetative cover for forests and rangeland. Many home garden fruits and vegetables require pollination to produce as well.

"Most of us take for granted the ecological service that honey bees provide as pollinators," said Dr. Robert Coulson, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station entomologist. "However, the demise of feral (wild) honey bee colonies eliminates the principal purveyor of this critical service. It is not clear whether other species of insects can substitute for honey bees and provide pollination of flowering plants in our natural landscapes."

If the initiative is funded, scientists want to look at the reasons why wild honey bees are not as abundant in as many places any more and define what that means for the pollination of both commercial crops and wild flowering plants. Among the studies would be one looking at the interaction and impact of Africanized honey bees on both managed and wild domestic honey bees.

Two other research components would document and evaluate native pollinators other than honey bees and would develop a computerized spatial information management system for beekeepers.

The initiative's partners stress that telling people about the research results will be a vital part in helping to bring back a healthy population of honey bees in the state.

"With the invasion of Africanized honey bees and parasitic mites, beekeeping in Texas has been subjected to more change in the last 10 years than the past 100 years," said Holloway. "These 'new' problems have changed beekeeping management practices and driven some beekeepers out of business. In short supply are local honeys, and bees for pollination contracts and wild flower pollination."

Results from these findings, the cooperative group notes, would be conveyed to beekeepers, wildflower enthusiasts, gardeners and the general public through educational materials and programs developed under the initiative.