Colony Collapse

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and were known by various names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease), the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in late 2006 in conjunction with a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of western honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in North America. Most European countries observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially marked in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, Switzerland and Germany; the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%. The phenomenon became more global when it touched some Asian and African countries too.'Bees of all species are likely to encounter multiple stressors during their lives, and each is likely to reduce the ability of bees to cope with the others. A bee or bee colony that appears to have succumbed to a pathogen may not have died if it had not also been exposed to a sublethal dose of a pesticide and/or been subject to food stress (which might in turn be due to drought or heavy rain induced by climate change, or competition from a high density of honey bee hives placed nearby). Unfortunately, conducting well-replicated studies of the effects of multiple interacting stressors on bee colonies is exceedingly difficult. The number of stressor combinations rapidly becomes large, and exposure to stressors is hard or impossible to control with free-flying bees. Nonetheless, a strong argument can be made that it is the interaction among parasites, pesticides, and diet that lies at the heart of current bee health problems.' Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and were known by various names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease), the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in late 2006 in conjunction with a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of western honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in North America. Most European countries observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially marked in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, Switzerland and Germany; the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%. The phenomenon became more global when it touched some Asian and African countries too. Colony collapse disorder causes significant economic losses because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by western honey bees. According to the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the worth of global crops with honey bee pollination was estimated at close to $200 billion in 2005. Shortages of bees in the US have increased the cost to farmers renting them for pollination services by up to 20%. In the six years leading up to 2013, more than 10 million colonies were lost, often to CCD, nearly twice the normal rate of loss. In comparison, according to U.N. FAO data, the world's beehive stock rose from around 50 million in 1961 to around 83 million in 2014, which is about 1.3% average annual growth. Average annual growth has accelerated to 1.9% since 2009. Several possible causes for CCD have been proposed, but no single proposal has gained widespread acceptance among the scientific community. Suggested causes include: infections with Varroa and Acarapis mites; malnutrition; various pathogens; genetic factors; immunodeficiencies; loss of habitat; changing beekeeping practices; or a combination of factors. A large amount of speculation has surrounded a family of pesticides called neonicotinoids as having caused CCD. Honey producing colonies in the United States increased 4% to 2.8 million in 2018. Limited occurrences resembling CCD have been documented as early as 1869 and this set of symptoms has, in the past several decades, been given many different names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease). Most recently, a similar phenomenon in the winter of 2004/2005 occurred, and was attributed to varroa mites (the 'vampire mite' scare), though this was never ultimately confirmed. The cause of the appearance of this syndrome has never been determined. Upon recognition that the syndrome does not seem to be seasonally restricted, and that it may not be a 'disease' in the standard sense—that there may not be a specific causative agent—the syndrome was renamed. A well-documented outbreak of colony losses spread from the Isle of Wight to the rest of the UK in 1906. These losses later were attributed to a combination of factors, including adverse weather, intensive apiculture leading to inadequate forage, Acarine (tracheal) mites, and a new infection, the chronic bee paralysis virus, but at the time, the cause of this agricultural beekeeping problem was similarly mysterious and unknown. Reports show this behavior in hives in the US in 1918 and 1919. Coined 'mystery disease' by some, it eventually became more widely known as 'disappearing disease'. Oertel, in 1965, reported that hives afflicted with disappearing disease in Louisiana had plenty of honey in the combs, although few or no bees were present, discrediting reports that attributed the disappearances to lack of food. From 1972 to 2006, dramatic reductions continued in the number of feral honey bees in the U.S. and a significant though somewhat gradual decline in the number of colonies maintained by beekeepers. This decline includes the cumulative losses from all factors, such as urbanization, pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and commercial beekeepers' retiring and going out of business. However, in late 2006 and early 2007, the rate of attrition was alleged to have reached new proportions, and people began to use the term colony collapse disorder to describe this sudden rash of disappearances (or sometimes spontaneous hive collapse or the Mary Celeste syndrome in the United Kingdom).