U.S. beekeepers lost fewer honey bees last year than in previous years, but the size of the decline is still a threat to the industry.
The USDA reported May 19 that beekeepers lost 29 percent of their honey bee colonies during the September 2008-April 2009 period. That’s a smaller loss than the 36 percent in ‘07-’08 and 32 percent in ‘06-’07. The data came from a survey of 20 percent of the country’s 2.3 million colonies.
However, the magnitude of the loss — almost 30 percent — is unsustainable for beekeepers economically, according to Jeff Pettis (see USDA press release), head of the USDA’s Bee Lab in Beltsville, Md.
Some honey bees are leaving their colonies and not returning. This mysterious phenomenon has been labeled “Colony Collapse Disorder,” or CCD. Last July I interviewed Pettis about disappearing honey bees. He said then that scientists were looking at a combination of factors to explain the disappearances.
Honey bee pollination is critical to agriculture, adding more than $15 billion to the value of American crops each year, according to the USDA.
Last year, Pettis told me that beekeepers used to lose about 10 percent of their colonies each year. After the varroa mite came to the U.S. from Southeast Asia in the 1980s, the colony losses jumped to 20 percent a year. Now, for still unexplained reasons, the losses are at about 30 percent a year — and some of those bees are flying away and not returning.
USAToday quotes Dennis van-Engelsdorp, president of Apiary Inspectors of America, as saying about the cause of CCD: “It might be nutrition, new and changed pathogens, and also possibly pesticide exposure.”
So the mystery of the disappearing bees continues. Fortunately, beekeepers are losing fewer than last year; unfortunately, it is still too many.
Post a Comment