Sludge Watch ==> Eerie saga of the vanishing bees

[Maureen Reilly]

Opinion: Eerie saga of the vanishing bees
20.aug.07
Sydney Morning Herald
Paul Sheehan

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/eerie-saga-of-the-vanishing-bees/2007/08/19/1187462083686.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1


When bees began to disappear from the landscape - and in America and Europe 
they are disappearing in their billions - it is an alarm signal. Today bees 
are telling us something, and we need to listen.
The story says that bees are not just disappearing in large numbers, they 
are vanishing. Entire colonies of honey bees have been deserting freshly 
made honey and newly hatched eggs, leaving behind no bodies, no signs of 
struggle, no evidence of the usual insect predators. Hundreds of apiarists 
have been coming upon scenes similar to the boat found drifting in open 
water, with food on the table, no signs of distress, no lifeboat missing, 
and no occupants.
The recent phenomenon of the missing bees has been given a name: colony 
collapse disorder. Because bees play a key role in the landscape, they are a 
critical indicator of general environmental health. As one of Australia's 
leading bee experts, Doug Somerville, of the NSW Department of Primary 
Industry, was quoted as saying on Friday: "Honey bees are the 'canaries in 
the coalmine' of the environment."
The story goes on to say that what is known is that the commercial honey 
industry in the US is in distress. This has begun to flow through to 
American agriculture, where the use of a single species introduced from 
Europe - the western honey bee - has become crucial to the production of 
apples, blueberries, cranberries, cherries, cucumbers, watermelons, 
pumpkins, almonds and other crops.
Hackenberg has said his business will not survive this winter if colony 
collapse disorder hits his honey bees again. He has kept his business alive 
by restocking with bees imported from Australia. This raises the obvious 
question: what about Australia's bees?
Dave Britton, an entomologist at the Australian Museum, was quoted as 
saying, "There are no cases of [colony collapse disorder] in Australia at 
all. It is a northern hemisphere phenomenon." He added that there has been 
some "very creative" speculation about the causes of the colony collapses. 
Scientists are divided over whether colony collapse disorder is a grave 
threat or a transitory one. What is not in dispute is that the genetic 
analysis of adult bees taken from collapsing hives in America has produced 
alarming results. The bees tend to be infected with every known bee virus, 
plus new pathogens never seen before.
The story goes on to say that it will be no surprise, then, if the 
underlying cause of colony collapse disorder proves to be the same 
environmental evil that has already caused so much damage to the American 
food chain - the systemic use of chemicals - which compounds the loss of 
biodiversity caused by factory farming.
Although colony collapse disorder is absent from Australia, local scientists 
and honey-growers are worried. What they fear is something else, the varroa 
mite, a parasite that has caused havoc to bee populations overseas, 
including the US, and is now spreading south from Asia.