Mystery killer silencing honeybees

[deadandalive]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Honey, I'm Gone

Abandoned Beehives Are a Scientific Mystery and a Metaphor for Our Tenuous Times


By Joel Garreau
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 1, 2007; Page C01


In "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," just before Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspatial express route, all the dolphins in the world disappear, leaving behind just the message: "So long, and thanks for all the fish."

Now, around the world, honeybees are vanishing en masse, leaving their humans engaged in a furious attempt to figure out the meaning of their exodus. Entire colonies are following the Shakespearean stage direction, "Exeunt omnes." They're flying off and not returning. Commercial beekeepers open their hives and find them empty except for a queen, a few immature bees and abundant honey and pollen. The rest of the bees are simply gone, leaving behind not even dead bodies.

."

"Good. For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble." -- "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...=moreheadlines

Albert Einstein said if bees where to disapear man would have but acouple of years left.but then he was wrong about quantum physics, yet his statement shows an understanding of interdependancy

[Snowy Owl]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

I would like to thank all of you for watching the Bees problem since last February, it has now reach the Major Economical Level Interests.

I Have started a new thread and we shall go forward on the new one since this one has delivered, I will now close it.

The new thread, phase two of this globally unfolding event is now at

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28332

I invite you to consider Moderator G?nseerpel Post
Fowl mites as AI vectors? in relation to this outbreak, at least in parts of the world where H5N1 has been identify.

Thank you

[Sally Furniss]

Bee diseases

Public release date: 2-May-2008
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Contact: Lucy Mansfield
lucy.mansfield@oxon.blackwellpublishing.com
44-018-654-76241
Wiley-Blackwell
Bees disease -- 1 step closer to finding a cure

Scientists in Germany have discovered a new mechanism of infection for the most fatal bee disease. American Foulbrood (AFB) is the only infectious disease which can kill entire colonies of bees. Every year, this notifiable disease is causing considerable economic loss to beekeepers all over the world. The only control measure is to destroy the infected hive.
The mechanism of infection (pathogenic mechanism) was originally thought to be through the growth of a bacterium called Paenibacillus larvae in the organ cavity of honey bee larvae. The accepted view was that the bacteria germinate preferentially at either end of the gut of honey bee larvae then make holes in the gut wall and enter the larval organ cavity, the presumed primary place of bacterial proliferation.
In a paper published in Environmental Microbiology, Professor Elke Genersch and colleagues in Berlin explain that they have discovered that these bacteria cause infection in a completely different way. They colonize the larval midgut, do most of their multiplying in the mid-gut - living from the food ingested by the larvae - until eventually the honey bee larvae gut contains nothing but these disease-causing (pathogenic) bacteria. It isn?t until then that the bacteria ?burst? out of the gut into the organ cavity thereby killing the larvae. These findings are a major breakthrough in honeybee pathology.
?Now that we fully understand the way in which this disease works, we can start to look at ways of preventing the spread of infection? said Professor Genersch.
Honeybees are important pollinators of crops, fruit and wild flowers. Therefore, they are indispensable for a sustainable and profitable agriculture but also for the maintenance of the non-agricultural ecosystem. Honeybees are attacked by numerous pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. For most, if not all of these diseases, the molecular pathogenesis is poorly understood hampering the development of new ideas about how to prevent and combat honeybee diseases.
Professor Genersch added: ?Molecular understanding of pathogen-host interactions is vital for the development of effective measures against infectious diseases. Therefore, in the long run, our findings will help to save large numbers of bees all over the world.?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/w-bd050208.php