[SustainableTompkins] Apple-Crop: Bee researchers close in on Colony Collapse Disorder

[Tony Del Plato]

Hi,
For those of you following the bee CCD, this report from a CU researcher is
informative and, as is often the case, when we have enough information and
the situation is placed in context, it is easier to understand and accept.
Tony


>
>Contact: Andrea Elyse Messer
>aem1 at psu.edu
>814-865-9481
>Penn State
>
>Bee researchers close in on Colony Collapse Disorder
>
>Across the nation, beekeepers have seen hive after hive succumb to Colony
>Collapse Disorder (CCD); a team of entomologists and infectious disease
>researchers now report a strong correlation between the occupancy of CCD
>and a virus, Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IVAP).
>
>"We have not proven a causal relationship between any infectious agent and
>CCD," the researchers report in today's (Sept. 6) issue of Science Express
>online. However, they note that the prevalence of IAPV genetic material in
>bees suffering from CCD, the timing of the outbreaks and the geographical
>circumstances "indicate that IAPV is a significant marker for CCD."
>
>Many researchers are investigating CCD because domestic honeybees are
>vital to a variety of agricultural crops in the United States. Beekeepers
>truck their hives cross country to pollinate almond groves in California,
>field crops and forages in the Midwest, apples and blueberries in the
>Northeast and citrus in Florida.
>
>Unlike other diseases that have plagued bees in the past, CCD leaves a
>hive with a few newly hatched adults, a queen and plenty of food.
>Researchers suspect a pathogen because while bees will not recolonize a
>CCD hive, once the hive is irradiated and therefore sterile, bees are
>happy to live there.
>
>The disease was recognized in 2006, but beekeepers reported hive declines
>similar to CCD as early as 2004. An estimated 23 percent of all beekeeping
>operations in the U.S. suffered from CCD during the winter of 2006-2007.
>
>After looking at other methods of identifying the cause of the disease,
>the researchers decided to sequence the genetic material in bees to try to
>find a potential pathogen.
>
>"The genome of the honey bee had just been completed," said Diana
>Cox-Foster, professor of entomology, Penn State. "So it was possible to do
>the sequencing and then eliminate the genetic material of the bees."
>
>W. Ian Lipkin, M.D., professor of epidemiology, neurology and pathology at
>Columbia University and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity
>at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and his team
>prepared samples for 454 Life Science -- the company that developed the
>array-based pyrosequencer -- to sequence cDNA from the RNA of the bees.
>
>Researchers analyzed data using a unique set of algorithms generated at
>Columbia, did a large amount of viral sequence comparison, developed real
>time PCR assays and cloned the full length IAPV genome, among other things.
>
>The samples sequenced included bees from four geographically separated CCD
>suffering operations, apparently healthy bees imported from Australia,
>non-diseased samples from Pennsylvania and Hawaii, and samples of royal
>jelly imported from China. Royal jelly is secreted by bees and used to
>feed all larvae, but those fed only with royal jelly become queens.
>
>"We chose bees from Hawaii because at that time, those populations were
>free of varoa mites, a problem in all mainland hives," says Cox-Foster.
>"The royal jelly was not intended for bees, but for human consumption and
>cosmetics, but some beekeepers use it to create new queens."
>
>The researchers grouped material for sequencing as presumed CCD positive,
>presumed CCD negative and royal jelly. The pooled RNA sequences were
>analyzed for bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses matches.
>
>Lipkin played a key role in the search for new or reemerging pathogens,
>contributing unique methods. The genetic sequences, minus that of the
>domestic honeybee, were eventually matched against GenBank, a database of
>genetic sequences maintained by the U.S. National Center for Biology
>Information, National Institutes of Health. Ninety-six percent of the
>genetic material matched that previously found in bees.
>
>The bacterial sequences were those normally found in bees worldwide,
>analyzed by Nancy A. Moran, the Regents' professor of ecology and
>evolutionary biology, University of Arizona, and colleagues and Jay Evans,
>research entomologist, Bee Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of
>Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service and colleagues.
>
>"The bacteria found were the same as those found in two previous studies
>from two different parts of the world at two different times," says
>Cox-Foster. "They represent mutualistic or symbiotic relationships with
>the bees, similar to those of humans and the bacteria found in the human
gut."
>
>Protozoans and fungi analyzed by Liwang Cui, associate professor of
>entomology, and David M. Geiser, associate professor of plant pathology,
>Penn State respectively, were associated with both CCD and non CCD
>populations.
>
>"We knew before we started that we would find a boatload of viruses in the
>bees given our preliminary research," says Cox-Foster. "Eighteen different
>types are known from serology and antibody work in England."
>
>Cox-Foster's and Lipkin's groups analyzed the viruses. They found the
>expected viruses, and they found one that, while identified by researchers
>at Hebrew University in 2004, has just now appeared in scientific
>publication. This virus, IAPV, along with Kashmir bee virus (KBV), was
>found only in CCD populations. In the initial experiments, the researchers
>report that "IAPV was found in all four affected operations sampled, in
>two of four royal jelly samples and in the Australian sample. KBV was
>present in three of four CCD operations, but not in the royal jelly."
>
>Other viruses and Nosema parasites had been suggested as the cause of CCD,
>but the researchers found that those pathogens appear in both CCD and
>non-CCD samples. Only KBV and IAPV correlated with CCD in the genetic
>survey. In a recently published study, Jeffery S. Pettis, research leader,
>Bee Reseach Laboratory, and colleagues reported that Nosema ceranae had
>been in the U.S. for at least 10 years, along with Nosema apis.
>
>Researchers then analyzed samples collected from 30 CCD colonies and 21
>healthy colonies in the past three years for four pathogens: KBV, IAPV and
>Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae -- both fungi that infect bees. They found
>that all samples that had IAPV had KBV, but KBV also occurred in both sick
>and healthy samples.
>
>"IAPV was found to increase the risk of CCD with a trend for increased CCD
>risk in samples positive for Nosema apis," the researchers said. "Neither
>KBV nor N. ceranae contributed significantly to the risk for CCD nor did
>they alter the influence of IAPV on CCD."
>
>However, while IAPV may be a marker for CCD, proving that any organism is
>the cause of CCD is somewhat more difficult. The researchers will now try
>to infect bee colonies with CCD. Beside general health stress from the
>heavy load of pathogens normally carried by bees, other suggested
>contributors to CCD include pesticides, drought and nutritional stress.
>
>Timing also may be the key to pinpointing the cause. The United States
>began allowing importation of bees from Australia in 2004, which coincides
>with early reports of CCD. The same year, IAPV, described by Israeli
>researchers with symptoms of shivering wings, progressed paralysis and
>bees dying outside the hive appeared. While CCD does not seem to have the
>same symptoms, this may reflect a different strain of the virus,
>co-infection with another pathogen or the presence of other stressors.
>
>The researchers note that "the varroa mite, for example, absent in
>Australia, immunosuppresses bees, making them more susceptible to
>infection by other organisms." Beekeepers used mitocides, chemicals used
>to control varroa, on both CCD and healthy colonies.
>
>Edward C. Holmes, professor of biology, Penn State, and Gustavo Palacios,
>Columbia University, were instrumental in determining the evolutionary
>relationships of the viruses found in CCD colonies compared to previously
>known viruses and isolates from Australia.
>
>While unquestionably it is important to identify the cause of CCD, this
>total genetic study of bees and their fellow travelers also may lead to a
>better understanding of other disease causing agents in the population and
>to an understanding of the beneficial organisms that reside within the bee.
>
>###
>
>Other researchers on the Penn State team include Dennis vanEngelsdorp,
>senior extension associate and State Apiarist for the Pennsylvania
>Department of Agriculture, and Abby Kalkstein, research technologist.
>Other researchers at Columbia University include Sean Conlan, Phenix-Lan
>Quan, Thomas Briese, Mady Hornig, Andrew Drysdale, Jeffrey Hui and Junhui
>Zhai. Vince Martinson, University of Arizona and Stephen K. Hutchison, Jan
>Fredrik Simons and Michael Eghom, at 454 Life Sciences, also contributed.
>
>
>
>
>----------

Brian Caldwell
Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
905 Bradfield Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
bac11 at cornell.edu
607-255-4747
Cell: 607-280-3652
Fax: 607-255-3207




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