Virus blamed for mysterious disappearance of US bees – life – 06 September 2007 – New Scientist — As you know Dvorák Uncensored has been following the bee kill-offs. This story may have identified the real problem.
Entomologists have suggested a number of causes – from heavy pesticide use to genetically modified crops and even radiation from mobile phones.
Now, Jeffery Pettis at the Bee Research Laboratory of the US Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland, and collaborators say a pathogen called Israeli acute paralysis virus IAPV may be to blame. First identified in Israel in 2004, IAPV causes bees to develop shivering wings and eventually become paralysed, leading to death just outside the hive.
The researchers collected genetic samples from 51 colonies across the US, 30 of which had been devastated by CCD. By comparing the gene fragments they found against the recently published honeybee genome sequence, they quickly spotted the presence of DNA belonging to the Israeli acute paralysis virus.
found by Christopher Dent
Honey, this could bee a real problem.
I kill every bee that enters my local..
Life choice or act of god.. you decide
Saw this on Nightline. I was hoping that it would appear on this blog too. The questions are, how in hades did this virus get over here? And can bees be treated for it? I’m a bit suspecious of something that threatens our food supply and had only been discovered on the other side of the atlantic until now. Is this an act of political terrorism or agro-sabotage? Is the Taliban responsible for this (since it was first detected in the middle east, it’s a good bet). Or are the Chinese up to something new? I can’t believe that this was another careless screwup, like the release of the african killer bees in south america, in the 1950s. Could someone have been so dumb as to just import a bunch of bees from Israel to see how they’d work over here, and comtaminated the whole US bee population. That would be a pretty huge “Oops, my bad” mistake on someone’s part. And aren’t imported animals supposed to be quarantined and tested for such diseases?
The only other way that bees could have got this virus would be from a plant vector, or a bee paraside, that was imported here. I quess we may never know for certain. But at least we found something to deal with those killer bees. Just don’t inoculate them.
Is that why BeOS is no more… ?
Cheers
The life cycle of bees as we know them is not the “bee” all end all..
big picture.. only bees can pollinate flowers?
#3 “Or are the Chinese up to something new? ”
Garwsh Mickey, Ya know Honey is yellow….bees are Yellow AND black….and Chinese well, heeyuk they are Yellow too….so, Darn It, must be those Chinese doing it! Heeyuk Heeyuk! (What next HUH?)
All those Gay bees spreading H-I-BEE
Microsoft … Genuine Bee Advantage servers failed…again
Apple won their patent case for the iBee
Plan BEE failed as well!!
Anyone of those are plausible… 😉
Cheers
Well at least the people who read this blog ( authoritative types) still have a sense of humour.
“Is that why BeOS is no more”
“I“bee” all end all.”
And yet it is all very serious – no bees , – blame Israel once more
The honey bee was introduced to North America by the Europeans
The aboriginals referred to them as “white man’s flies”
If there were no bees in the American continent prior to European colonization, how did fertilization occurred?
#8 The dinosaurs did it. It says so at the museum. The Europeans killed off all the dinosaurs and had to replace them with something, bees.
If we didn’t inbreed and overmanage our bees in the first place they wouldn’t be as vulnerable to such threats.
Is it just me…or did that sound like a computer virus had made Universal Serial Bus ports not work? I just said it “out loud” in my head and it did sound like that….
Alex we have to over-manage to feed so many people. The real problem is there are too many humans and resources are too stretched. A minor climate burp has and still will cause mass famine. With less arable lands farmers are having to use hybrids and high yield species. This lack or variety invites disease and disaster. I don’t envy the next few generations.
I wouldn’t mind a few fewer bees in my yard, actually. Grow some plants, you lazy bastards.
Hey, what’s the buzz on all the missing bees?
#12 “Alex we have to over-manage to feed so many people.”
Maybe this is more economics than need. I know I sound like a tired old broken record…if what you said is true China has what seems to be a good supply of honey. I am no agriculturist so my comment is only from observation that Chinese supermarket / food shop has Chinese honey. I also have heard that Chinese honey does not meet US hygiene standards so it is not exported.
I could be wrong on both points so as I said this is just what I see.
Cheers
other animals pollinate not just bees… bees just do a major part of it… I think the world will be able to live without bees it just may be tougher than we have it now…
if the US wasn’t lazy maybe they could get their shit in order and fix this problem