Possible Breakthrough for Honeybees
As I have been busy in the garden, digging up a patch for my sunflowers as part of the Great Sunflower Project, honeybees are not far from my mind or the mind of many a gardener/farmer. I’ve noticed a few bumble bees, but nary a honeybee. Maybe it’s too early, but I’ve got blossoms-a-rama in my strawberry patch, so what up, bees?
Scientists in Spain may have made a bee-line in the fight to save the honeybees. One possible reason for the devastating Colony Collapse Disorder is a really, really small parasite called Nosema ceranae. It is not totally agreed on in the scientific community what indeed has or is causing CCD in the honeybee populations in Europe and the US, but more data and more testing is showing evidence of an Asian parasite-strain, the Nosema ceranae, jumped from the Apis cerana, or the Asian Honeybee, to Apis mellifera, otherwise known as the Western Honeybee.
However, the CCD and nosema ceranae relationship is not altogether understood, as the bees are usually not analyzed until after the colony has collapsed. It may very well be that pesticides or mites or something else is causing the deaths, and maybe the nosema ceranae are only moving in once the bees are weakened.
But Spanish scientists have found a way to treat this microscopic pest, and they did is successfully in two colonies that losing their numbers.
They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides) other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies. –Compute Scotland
Is it wrong of me to still want to blame pesticides?
honeybees, colony collapse disorder, CCD, Spain, nosema ceranae, Western honeybees, Asiatic honeybee, parasite, pesticides, Apis cerana, Apis mellifera
