Issue date: 9/17/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Rachel Bujalski Tom Elston, owner of Amber Bee Company for 32 years, holds a few of his many bees Thursday afternoon.

The sudden disappearance of honeybees has been reason for concern over the past several months, while scientists have been attempting to establish a cause for this mysterious occurrence. Recent studies have revealed a link between Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV).

"There is no evidence that any pathogen affects humans in any way," May Berenbaum, entomology professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, said when asked if the virus could affect humans. Berenbaum led a recent examination of the decline in the honeybee population as well as the population of other pollinators across North America.

"Global ecology could suffer because they are a very important part of the ecosystem," Edward Holmes, Penn State biology professor, said.

CCD refers to the unknown disease that causes bees to lose their navigational senses and fly around aimlessly until they expire. This has been occurring in several honeybee colonies regardless of their having ample amounts of food in their hives. IAPV was reported in Israel three years ago, and possibly passed through Australia before arriving in the United States.

It is characterized by the quivering of bees' wings and eventual paralysis. The bees are usually found lifeless outside of their hives.

The loss of worker bees could cause a large burden on the agriculture industry. Some of the crops that bees pollinate are products that are worth $14 billion to $20 billion annually.

Since this problem was first noticed last year, an estimated 23 percent of the nation's beekeeping operations have been affected, and losses have been as high as 90 percent. The demise of these bees will take a toll on the environment as well. Although some may not realize it, bees are critical to biodiversity.

Scientists who began investigating this matter early in the year took samples from four colonies that experienced CCD and two healthy colonies, as well as samples from supposedly healthy bees from Australia and royal jelly from China.

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