The Scientist; (free registration may be required)
An illness that has been decimating US honeybees for more than three years probably isn't caused by a single virus, but by multiple viruses that wear down the bees' ability to produce proteins that can guard them against infection, according to a new study.
[...]
Berenbaum and colleagues at the US Department of Agriculture screened thousands of transcripts in the guts of bees from both healthy and CCD-stricken colonies from the east and west coasts of the US.
CCD bees had several unusual RNA fragments resulting from broken, malfunctioning ribosomes. Multiple infections with a family of viruses called the picorna-like viruses, which seem to especially afflict CCD bees, could cause the appearance of such RNA fragments as they overwhelmed ribosomes and limited the cells' ability to manufacture functioning proteins. Bees that are not able to make proteins cannot mount effective responses to viral or bacterial infection or respond to dietary shortages, Berenbaum said.
Although the study didn't uncover a single cause for CCD, said Dan Weaver, a Texas-based apiculturist who was not involved with the research, it "provides some hints and suggestive evidence that maybe there's a general impairment of bees' ability to cope with pathogens at a basic regulatory step."
Berenbaum said that CCD may not be the result of one particular pathogen or environmental factor, but rather may occur when multiple viral infections overwhelm the bees' translational machinery. Bees may be able to handle one or two viral infections simultaneously, but not three or four. "You can recover from a gunshot wound," Berenbaum said, "unless someone is kicking you in the head at the same time."
While apiculturists like Weaver would rather have a single pathogenic cause of CCD in hand, the disorder, which has caused widespread bee mortalities in the US since 2006, appears to be more complex than that. "It would be better if we had more definitive evidence of what exactly is going on," Weaver said. "I think that would be everyone's fervent hope. But so far that hasn't materialized."
Berenbaum's study does, however, rule out some of the previously suggested theories for the cause of CCD. For example, the screen failed to turn up elevated expression of pesticide response genes in CCD bees. "The pattern we saw was inconsistent with pesticides as a cause," said Berenbaum, adding that this will probably not stop some in the honeybee business from blaming pesticide manufacturers for the disorder. Interestingly, the screen also failed to find increased expression of immune response genes, suggesting that the bees were not able to mount effective responses to the pathogens attacking their colonies.
Also at the BBC.
Posted by Kate at August 25, 2009 11:59 AMY2Bumble Bee ?
Posted by: Fred at August 25, 2009 12:02 PMWonderful, Fred. See the new post title.
Posted by: Kate at August 25, 2009 12:09 PMAnother sign of global warming run amuck.
Posted by: bob c at August 25, 2009 12:17 PMBut, but - the Toronto Star blames global warming and .. and cell phones !
Cellular Phone Uses Linked To Bee Deaths
Posted by: ron in kelowna at August 25, 2009 12:18 PMI blame Bush.
/
A reduction in the bee population? Here there are more bees in the past few years. Stung so many times last year I now have to carry an Epipen. And I've never seen more hives than this year. I'd be happy to export some back to the US.
Posted by: Anne (not from Cornwall) at August 25, 2009 12:30 PMI blame it on windmills.
Posted by: pete at August 25, 2009 12:43 PMUs as well Anne, have honey bees living inside the walls of the garden shed, again this year.
I leave them alone.
Garage is big enough for the garden stuff anyways.
:)
... and yes, I'm chicken, don't like being stung!
Wasps nests however have to go, they're pretty aggressive when it's BBQ and relax with a beer time.
One thing that does work, at least for me with wasps stings, is a half a raw cooking onion held on the sting for about 15 mins. Takes the swelling way down and reduces that burning pain to a much less intense level.
According to the latest report from California- the bees don't have anything to pollinate. Drought. And something about an endangered minnow preventing the rerouting of desperately needed water for crops.
Posted by: Mortimer at August 25, 2009 12:45 PMI was half expected the study to be prefaced with "Because of man-made global warming..."
Posted by: Dave at August 25, 2009 12:47 PMinbreeding.
Posted by: the bear at August 25, 2009 12:58 PMLet me translate the entomological speakanese...
CCD while not new or unprecedented is a serious problem for anyone who has seen the "The Bee Movie"and understands what happens when Bees stop working, in this case because they are dead not just honey rich.
Why? we have not got a frigging clue why but man seems to be innocent so far, but we will keep looking because we are sure it is our fault somehow.
Stay tuned for more explanations of what we do not know about CCD.
Posted by: Illiquid Assets at August 25, 2009 1:17 PMI have a solution. Use Rodgers Golden Syrup made from healthy sugar beets grown near Taber, Alberta. As far as the bees go, as my late father used to say. Fuckem!
Posted by: Citoyen Joe--AKA Joe Citizen at August 25, 2009 1:17 PMIs Rodgers' any relation to Lyle's Golden Syrup of English fame?
Posted by: Arron D at August 25, 2009 1:48 PMThe best honey ever is from my farm relatives in northern Saskatchewan.
Bees are important for more than just honey, Joe Citizen - I've read that about 1/3rd of the human diet is traceable back to bee pollination. I didn't know that stuff about Rogers syrup and Taber, interesting!
Arron D - from wiki:
"Golden syrup was invented in 1883 by Scottish businessman Abram Lyle, when he discovered that a byproduct of the sugar cane refined at his factory in Plaistow, East London, could be made into a delicious spread and sweetener for cooking."
Haven't found specifics on Rogers
Posted by: Erik Larsen at August 25, 2009 1:56 PMThe bees have a, unknown to them, socialist parasite taking over the hive.. Its Honey (wealth) war between those that gather & the collective freeloaders.
The elderly are the first to die.
Posted by: Slap shot at August 25, 2009 2:06 PMMeanwhile in France, the honeybees are being killed off by the invading asiatic wasp. ( Which seems like a nasty peice of work all over.)
Even native european wasps are having a rough time with the asiatic variety.
Honey Bee's are having a tough time all over.
Posted by: Fred2 at August 25, 2009 3:18 PMI didn't know bees used cell phones. What are the roaming charges?
Posted by: speedy at August 25, 2009 3:43 PMMaybe they have the bee version og H1N1? Or Bee AIDS brought over by those nasty African bees?
OR,maybe just Mother Nature's way of taking care of an over-population problem?
I use Soylent Honey® and while I recommend it, the taste does vary from person to person.
Posted by: andycanuck at August 25, 2009 6:02 PMMust be Grant Devine's fault.
Posted by: Ken at August 25, 2009 6:29 PMwhere does the CBeeC stand on this?
is it abuse?
is it Rufus Wainwright?
is it Iggy?
can we blame Harper?
free Omar Khadr?
no its climate change.
Posted by: cal2 at August 25, 2009 8:12 PMDid anyone ask Suzuki??
Posted by: OMMAG at August 25, 2009 9:23 PMOh, don't bee cruel, OMMAG.
Posted by: rebarbarian at August 25, 2009 10:09 PMIt's all about oil.
Posted by: DrD at August 25, 2009 11:24 PMAll this time I figured it was reptilian aliens.
Posted by: Revnant Dream at August 26, 2009 12:47 AMOMMAG:
Suzuki thinks the sudden demise of bees could be caused by a train derailment where the cars were loaded with Raid! Oh no! Raaaaaaid!
Posted by: Joe Citizen. at August 26, 2009 1:08 AMGood one slapshot.
Parents will have to come up with a new metaphor to explain sex now. Birds and Birds??
Seriously though - this will lead to sky rocketing food prices if it continues unabated.
Posted by: No-One at August 26, 2009 5:49 AMGoogle bees + virus = 1.1M hits
Google bees + climate = 1.9M hits
Truth will prevail? Not under Al Gore's watch.
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