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Evidence That Colony Collapse Disorder Is a Disease
Expert: Pesticide Poisoning Wouldn't Roll Through Colonies This Way
By Kim Flottum
Dr. Eric Mussen, from the University Of California, Davis, is one of the researchers involved with figuring out the cause or causes of Colony Collapse Disorder. In his most recent newsletter he talks about one of the mysteries of Colony Collapse Disorder he has heard about ... here are his comments:
?On three separate occasions I have heard observations of the 'spread' of CCD through apiaries. The first was a San Joaquin Valley (CA) beekeeper who told me that he sees the disease sweep from west to east, through his apiaries, at the end of summer. The second was a report, through Jerry Bromenshenk, that a beekeeper attempting to produce organic honey in Montana has 600 colonies spread around an area far from anything and anybody. A visiting beekeeper places an apiary near the center of that beekeeping area and stays only long enough to take advantage of the honey flow, then leaves. After the visiting hives are gone, CCD starts in the apiaries nearest where the visitor was located and spreads out from the center to the more peripheral locations.
In this recent email Dr. Bromenshenk again is describing what happens in an apiary as CCD progresses. Among all the other symptoms, this sentence caught my eye: 'In large holding yards, CCD starts at one end and rolls through to the other end like a wave.'
Of all the things that may be involved in driving colonies toward colony collapse, the best one that would fit this 'disorder spread' criteria would be a pathogen causing an epidemic. Pesticides, malnutrition, toxic food, etc. are not likely to affect the colonies in a 'sweeping' or 'rolling' fashion. That sounds like a contagion moving through the colonies by drifting bees. Remember, also, that when losses start occurring, that is not when the contagion is sweeping through. That happened weeks earlier, when all the bees looked healthy.
Evidence That Colony Collapse Disorder Is a Disease
Expert: Pesticide Poisoning Wouldn't Roll Through Colonies This Way
By Kim Flottum
Dr. Eric Mussen, from the University Of California, Davis, is one of the researchers involved with figuring out the cause or causes of Colony Collapse Disorder. In his most recent newsletter he talks about one of the mysteries of Colony Collapse Disorder he has heard about ... here are his comments:
?On three separate occasions I have heard observations of the 'spread' of CCD through apiaries. The first was a San Joaquin Valley (CA) beekeeper who told me that he sees the disease sweep from west to east, through his apiaries, at the end of summer. The second was a report, through Jerry Bromenshenk, that a beekeeper attempting to produce organic honey in Montana has 600 colonies spread around an area far from anything and anybody. A visiting beekeeper places an apiary near the center of that beekeeping area and stays only long enough to take advantage of the honey flow, then leaves. After the visiting hives are gone, CCD starts in the apiaries nearest where the visitor was located and spreads out from the center to the more peripheral locations.
In this recent email Dr. Bromenshenk again is describing what happens in an apiary as CCD progresses. Among all the other symptoms, this sentence caught my eye: 'In large holding yards, CCD starts at one end and rolls through to the other end like a wave.'
Of all the things that may be involved in driving colonies toward colony collapse, the best one that would fit this 'disorder spread' criteria would be a pathogen causing an epidemic. Pesticides, malnutrition, toxic food, etc. are not likely to affect the colonies in a 'sweeping' or 'rolling' fashion. That sounds like a contagion moving through the colonies by drifting bees. Remember, also, that when losses start occurring, that is not when the contagion is sweeping through. That happened weeks earlier, when all the bees looked healthy.