From: Christian Science Monitor
Her garden at Buckingham Palace supports a bee-friendly landscape.
By Lynn Hunt
Bees are having a tough time in England, too. While colony collapse disorder is far less of an issue in Europe than it is in North America, varroa mites, viruses, pesticides, and habitat loss have contributed to the loss of more than 50 percent of England’s bee population over the past two decades. Two native honeybee species are thought to be extinct.
The buzz about shrinking honeybee populations has mobilized concern. Help is coming from all manner of honey lovers, from Winnie-the-Pooh to Queen Elizabeth II.
November 11, 2015
From: Entomological Society of America
Annapolis, MD: November 9, 2015 — A symposium on honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) will be held Sunday November 15 from 8:00 AM to 12:00 noon at the Minneapolis Convention Center during the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). Honey bee experts from all over the U.S. will discuss factors that may contribute to CCD, such as Varroa mites, pesticide residues, pesticide formulations, honey bee habitat, and honey bee genetics.
November 10, 2015
From: The Diplomat
Bees are disappearing, and the CSIRO is taking the lead in trying to find out why
By Helen Clark
Mass bee die-offs threaten food security around the world, but a global big data initiative led by the Australian Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation is microchipping bees in the hope of discovering some of the causes of these yet-unexplained deaths.
November 9, 2015
From: TheLand.co.au
JESSIE DAVIES
A NEW plan is afoot to ramp up Aussie bees’ resistance to the deadly Varroa mite.
Also known as Varroa destructor, the parasitic mite is the biggest threat to Australia’s honey bee industry, according to CSIRO researchers Saul Cunningham and Paul De Barro.
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November 6, 2015
From: The Vancouver Sun
Bees will better resist Canada’s diseases and parasites
By Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun
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Honeybee colonies in Canada and around the world have been plagued by die-offs in recent years, driven in part by the spread of varroa mites and the diseases they carry.
“The viruses passed on varroa mites are in many cases more harmful than the mites themselves,” said Foster.
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November 5, 2015
From: Genetic Literacy Project
Andrew Porterfield
Honey bees have had a rough decade or so. Starting in 2006, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) started to empty hives of these precious pollinators. While CCD appeared to have ebbed by 2012, honey bee losses, mostly linked to different factors, remained high enough to be of concern to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And earlier this summer the White House announced that Interagency Pollinator Health Task Force would begin digging into the problem further.
November 3, 2015
From: Vita-Europe.com
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We ‘ummed and ahhed’, but came to no firm conclusions on the day. Nosema apis (the older version) was considered, but since there was no evidence of dysentery on the front of the hives, it was discounted. Similarly there were no signs of excessive Varroa populations or of either American or European Foulbrood. We left the apiary mystified. We didn’t then know much about the new version of Nosema ceranae that was emerging and proving to be a killer in other countries. On reflection, we now think the new variant was the culprit.
***
November 3, 2015
From: Genetic Literacy Project
Jon Entine
What would you say about a government study claiming to show a connection between coffee and cancer—but it didn’t take into account that most of its study subjects were chain-smoking uranium miners who preferred to sunbathe without sunscreen?
You’d probably think it wasn’t very credible; or maybe it was a story in the satirical news organization The Onion.
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November 2, 2015
From: The Marine Biolological Association
A honey bee colony in England which has survived a disease that killed its neighbours, may provide a clue to the future management of these important pollinators.
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Viruses play an extremely important role in controlling host populations. DWV is closely related to a marine virus studied by the MBA’s Schroeder Research Group. DWV particles are not all identical, but made up of a swarm of three major variants (one of which was recently discovered by the authors). However, advances in sequencing technology have enabled the discovery of a unique viral dynamic in Swindon where a less deadly variant of DWV seems to prevent the entry of a more harmful variant, which may explain how these honey bees have survived.
October 29, 2015
From: The ISME Journal | Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology
Gideon J Mordecai1,2, Laura E Brettell3, Stephen J Martin3, David Dixon1, Ian M Jones2 and Declan C Schroeder1
Abstract
Over the past 50 years, many millions of European honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies have died as the ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor, has spread around the world. Subsequent studies have indicated that the mite’s association with a group of RNA viral pathogens (Deformed Wing Virus, DWV) correlates with colony death. Here, we propose a phenomenon known as superinfection exclusion that provides an explanation of how certain A. mellifera populations have survived, despite Varroa infestation and high DWV loads. Next-generation sequencing has shown that a non-lethal DWV variant ‘type B’ has become established in these colonies and that the lethal ‘type A’ DWV variant fails to persist in the bee population. We propose that this novel stable host-pathogen relationship prevents the accumulation of lethal variants, suggesting that this interaction could be exploited for the development of an effective treatment that minimises colony losses in the future.
October 28, 2015
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