Bees are a very important part of the environment, the economy, and our lives. Honey bees, along with many other types of bees, collect pollen from flowers, carry it back to their hives, and create honey to store as food. In the more modern era, bee hives have been industrialized by farmers and the farming industry in order to pollinate more crops. While bees have always been threatened by diseases, predatory bugs, and environmental stressors, a new threat has arisen. This threat is colony collapse disorder (CCD): a mysterious occurrence that affects seemingly healthy bee hives by killing the adult worker bees. While the cause of colony collapse disorder is not yet known, the main theories are that CCD is caused by a new disease, overcrowding,
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People began to notice that, in some hives, all of the worker bees suddenly began to disappear. At first, only a small percentage of hives seemed to be affected. Currently, “50 to 90% of colonies in the beekeeping industries are lost due to colony collapse disorder” (Cox-Foster et al, 2007). CCD occurs when almost all of the worker bees of a hive disappear, never to return. The queen bee and unhatched eggs are left as well as, in most cases, immature bees (Kaplan, 2012). A majority of the time, the hives are unable to recover, and thus, collapse. It is believed that the bee’s navigational system gets disrupted while they are collecting pollen and they are not able to find their way back to the hive, dying of starvation miles from their hive. This occurrence happens in a very short amount of time, making it hard to study and …show more content…
One reason CCD could not be caused by a disease is because all of the diseases prior to CCD killed most of the bees, and not just the adult worker bees. Also, in bees killed by colony collapse disorder, there are no signs of illness (Tokarz et al, 2011). In a study of microbes in both healthy hives and hives affected by colony collapse disorder (Cox-Foster et al, 2007), researchers could find “no relationship between candidate pathogens and CCD.” Again, when a study was conducted on the link between Iridovirus, a virus believed to cause CDC, and colony collapse disorder (Tokarz et al, 2011), no “analysis revealed any evidence to suggest the presence of an Iridovirus in CCD colonies.” Based on this information, it is clear that colony collapse disorder is not caused by an illness of
People began to notice that, in some hives, all of the worker bees suddenly began to disappear. At first, only a small percentage of hives seemed to be affected. Currently, “50 to 90% of colonies in the beekeeping industries are lost due to colony collapse disorder” (Cox-Foster et al, 2007). CCD occurs when almost all of the worker bees of a hive disappear, never to return. The queen bee and unhatched eggs are left as well as, in most cases, immature bees (Kaplan, 2012). A majority of the time, the hives are unable to recover, and thus, collapse. It is believed that the bee’s navigational system gets disrupted while they are collecting pollen and they are not able to find their way back to the hive, dying of starvation miles from their hive. This occurrence happens in a very short amount of time, making it hard to study and …show more content…
One reason CCD could not be caused by a disease is because all of the diseases prior to CCD killed most of the bees, and not just the adult worker bees. Also, in bees killed by colony collapse disorder, there are no signs of illness (Tokarz et al, 2011). In a study of microbes in both healthy hives and hives affected by colony collapse disorder (Cox-Foster et al, 2007), researchers could find “no relationship between candidate pathogens and CCD.” Again, when a study was conducted on the link between Iridovirus, a virus believed to cause CDC, and colony collapse disorder (Tokarz et al, 2011), no “analysis revealed any evidence to suggest the presence of an Iridovirus in CCD colonies.” Based on this information, it is clear that colony collapse disorder is not caused by an illness of