Food Sustainability: July 2008 Archives
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| Caucasian (dark-colored) bee originates from the Caucasus region that separates Europe from Asia. |
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| Italian bee is the most common bee in the United States. Its origin: Italy. |
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| This is one of Susan Cobey's New World Carniolan bees.The Carniolans originate from the Northern Balkans, Slovenia and Caucasian mountains.(Photos by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
Susan Cobey is internationally known for her expertise in honey bee breeding and instrumental insemination. She teaches classes that draw students from throughout the world. A bee breeder and geneticist for more than 30 years, she developed and maintains the world-renowned New World Carniolan stock.
“Researchers are still collecting more samples from collapsing colonies and trying very hard to process those and previous samples to see what may be causing the problem,” said UC Davis Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen, who believes that CCD is not caused by one single factor, but multiple factors, including malnutrition, pesticides, diseases, parasites and stress.
“Nearly every state in the U.S. has some to many beekeepers who are having difficulty with losses that appear to be CCD,” said Mussen, Extension apiculturist at UC Davis since 1976 and a former state and national beekeeper of the year. “Many countries are encountering similar bee losses. Since we don't know what is causing ours, or theirs, we cannot say that the cause(s) is the same, but it is likely.”
In CCD, nearly all adult worker bees unexpectedly fly away from the hive, abandoning the stored honey, pollen, larvae and pupae. Usually they leave in less than a week, and only the queen and a few young workers remain, Mussen said.
CCD is not a new occurrence, Mussen said. “Similar phenomena have been observed since 1869. It persisted in 1963, 1964 and 1965 and was called Spring Dwindling, Fall Collapse and Autumn Collapse. Then in 1975, it was called Disappearing Disease. But the disease wasn’t disappearing—the bees were.”
Can we surmise what the future holds for bees? “No, we cannot,” Mussen said. “We hope that this episode will just be one in a number that have occurred, and resolved themselves, in the past.”
At the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture hearing on June 26 to review the status of pollinator health and CCD, subcommittee chair Cong. Dennis Cardoza of California’s 18th District, said that the “importance of bees and other pollinators cannot be underestimated. Nearly 130 different crops—totaling over $15 billion in annual farm gate value—depend on pollination to grow.”
Testimony revealed that the lack of pollinators could further increase food prices. Said Cardoza: “USDA desperately needs to better coordinate their research and response to this ongoing crisis, and more clearly define their needs so that Congress can adequately respond.”
“Should the CCD crisis continue unchecked, pollinated ingredients such as strawberries, cherries and almonds could become scarce or too expensive to obtain, forcing us to evaluate whether we can continue offering popular flavors that depend on pollinated ingredients because of higher production costs,” Pien said.
Those interested in making online donations to UC Davis to help save the honey bees can access the UC Davis Department of Entomology Web page. Or, checks may be made out to “UC Regents” and mailed to the UC Davis Department of Entomology, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616.
University of California Davis bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey and Steve Sheppard, a professor and apiculturist at Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., are investigating several races of the Western or European honey bee (Apis mellifera), which European settlers brought to America in 1622.The Cobey-Sheppard research team has received semen from the Italian bee, shipped from Italy; the Carniolan bee, from Germany; and the Caucasian bee, from the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The Italian bee is a honey-colored bee that's the most common honey bee in the United States. The Carniolan and the Caucasian bees are darker in color.
The semen from the three races will be used to inseminate queens that will be kept in an APHIS-approved quarantine until determined safe to release, Cobey said. APHIS, the Animal and Plant Protection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is charged with protecting and promoting U.S. agricultural health.
Monoculture Doesn't Work with Insects, Either!
"As well as enhancing genetic diversity, known to increase fitness in honey bees, we're hoping this will result in an increased level of resistance to the exotic and introduced pests and diseases of our honey bees," Cobey said.
America's beekeepers reported losing 36.1 percent of their bees over the last year, up from 32 percent the previous year. The survey, commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America, showed that the beekeepers attributed 29 percent of the recent loss to colony collapse disorder, in which bees mysteriously abandon their hives.
The declining bee population crisis is particularly troubling, Cobey said, because bees pollinate about one-third of the food we eat, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
The bee research is funded by the California State Beekeepers' Association and the Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats (TEMA), founded in 1992.
Cobey will be in Turkey Aug. 1 to 14 to participate in the TEMA Bee Project. "One aspect of this is the preservation of Turkey's native Caucasian honey bee," she said.
The UC Davis geneticist will teach a honey bee instrumental insemination class, Aug. 16 to 19 at the Middle East Technical University, Department of Biology, Ankara, Turkey.
Cobey is internationally known for her expertise in honey bee breeding and instrumental insemination. She teaches classes that draw students from throughout the world. A bee breeder and geneticist for more than 30 years, she developed and maintains the world-renowned New World Carniolan stock.
At their request, Cobey will confer with officials on native bee races at the Bee Selection and Artificial Insemination Center at Camili of Artvin Province. The Camili region of six villages is where apiculturists discovered pure Caucasian bees thought to be extinct. They then began queen bee breeding, selection work and artificial insemination. The center officials seek Cobey's impressions and advice in connection with their work.
A "bee safari" is also planned to look at the five native races of honey bees in Turkey.
Prior to heading for Turkey, Cobey will guest-lecture at the Federation of Irish Beekeepers' Association summer course, July 21-26 in Gormanston, Ireland.
Those interested in making online donations to UC Davis to help save the honey bees can go to the UC Davis Department of Entomology Web page, http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/howtodonatetobeebiology.html. Or, checks may be made out to "UC Regents" and mailed to the UC Davis Department of Entomology, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616.
Susan Cobey with queen bee cells. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
