Colony Collapse Disorder - Coursework Example

Colony Collapse Disorder Introduction Nearly hundred varieties of crops, mainly fruits are highly dependent upon the pollinators like honeybees for their reproduction. The number of orchards and monoculture farms has increased unbelievingly in the past two decades. However, numerous natural pollinator species continue to dwindle in their number constantly owing to severe constriction in their diet. Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD is a recent plague that has wiped out nearly 30% of the total honey bee colonies in the US. The reasons for the occurrence of CCD are many. This essay discusses three main reasons coined by the scientists all over the world for CCD and its overall impact on the US agricultural industry. Pollination and Pollinators Pollination is the process of transferring pollen from one flower to another to create seeds and later fruits. Bats, bees and other insects act as natural pollinators moving from one flower to another to suck nectar. The pollen from a flower sticks to the legs and body of the insects and gets transferred to the other flowers aiding in their reproduction. The decrease in the number of pollinators will lead to severe famines. Throughout the US migratory bee, colonies are used to pollinate huge orchards and monoculture farms effectively. Bees reared in manmade hives are transported to various farms in need of pollination during the required period. Apis Mellifera – The Western Honey Bee Apis Mellifera widely known as the European honey bee is capable of pollinating monoculture farms much faster than the native species of the land like wild bees. The Western honey bees originated in Africa and spread quickly to countries like India and China and Europe. They were bought into the US by the early French and Spanish colonist struggling hard to withstand severe winters. European honey bees have a tendency to withstand long winters easily, which made them a preferable choice against the native wild bees, to collect honey (Winston, et al., 1981). Apis Mellifera has a second stomach in which they store the collected nectar from flowers. Apis Mellifera has special flower constancy traits, making them the best pollinators in the world. They collect nectar from only specific species of flowers, even if they have a chance to use another flower species. Pollen loss is highly prevented by Apis Mellifera aiding in fast pollination. This trait is very useful in pollinating cash crops like almonds. Hence farmers tend to use just these pollinators instead of allowing bats, humming birds and other bees into their orchards for the sake of creating high quality, non-contaminated crops. Varroa mites which suck the blood of the bees which are in an intermittent state of larvae, and pupae were the most potential threat to the European honey bees so far (Morse, 1978). Colony Collapse Disorder In 2006, Dave Hackenberg, a honey bee migrating and almond pollination expert reported nearly 60% of his domesticated European honey bees have entirely disappeared from his hives. There were no bodies of the deceased bees in any hive. The queen and the young ones in the hives were completely healthy. Only the worker bees which fly out to collect nectar over vast areas of farms disappeared mysteriously. His report led to a nationwide triggering of alarms. Several other bee rearing farmers from across the country and the globe reported similar symptoms in their hives. Overall estimation of the losses reported nearly 30% of the honey bee population has died in 2006, and it increased to 36% in the winter of 2007. Scientists named this major bee wipeouts as Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD and set to find the reason behind such massive deaths. Reasons for CCD Eliminating unscrupulous claims like alien abduction of bees, mobile phone signals interrupting bee’s brain and more scientific ones like BT crops affecting the immunity of bees and Varroa mites, three main reasons were proposed by the scientists after thorough investigation. The usage of neonicotinoids, a pesticide used to prevent leaf eating insects in the crops harmed the honey bee’s century-old capacity to return to their hives naturally. This led them to go astray and die out of hunger and cold. The increase in monoculture farms has highly reduced the number of wild flowers, weeds and meadows. Only cultured lawns and the fields without weeds are present as far the bees can fly. This phenomenon highly restricts the bee’s diets, making them wander very long distances for honey. This takes a toll on their general health and immunity making them susceptible to several different types of virus and bacterial attacks leading to their faster death. IAPV or Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus is considered as a potential reason for the cause of CCD, though it is not the only reason. The virus which attacks the honey bees causes a paralytic seizure in them when they work tough. The bees fall down and die much farther from the hives, making it difficult to track what caused the disappearance of the worker bees in the colonies. Solutions for CCD Bee Vaccines will not be much useful because honey bees physical structure is much different from that of humans, which will make the vaccines useless when fed to them. Beelogics, a biotech company proposed RNA interference, a method which will prevent the virus reproduction inside the bees. However, it is not evident how immune the new-born bees will be to this treatment. Bee growers across the globe have come up with several natural solutions to control the problem. A prominent one among them is increasing the nutrient content and versatility of the Bee food. They achieve this by planting hedgerows across the border of the farms. Wild flower meadows with weeds are created on the roadsides, in the fences, around the bee hives and everywhere imaginable enabling the bees to get a much better diet with little strain. The flowers grow on various seasons assuring a constant supply of nutritious food to the bees throughout the year. They have also started paying more attention to the hive hygiene in general, a concept which was long neglected. Men made beehives are sterilized using Gamma rays to cleanse the IAPV DNA.  The American Parliament has even passed a proposal to save the pollinators, allocating enough funds for the purpose. Farmers in major bee pollinating areas are made to follow stringent rules regarding usage of pesticides and encouraged to use organic fertilizers in place of neonicotinoids. Impact of CCD on the US Agriculture 2007 saw nearly 36% death of European honey bees in the US. 60% of the disappearances were attributed to CCD. Nearly 2.4 million bee colonies are managed in the US by around 1000 bee keepers. Many reported 90% losses forcing them out of work (Cox-Foster & Engelsdorp, 2009). The loss of bee keeping talent will result in severe shortage of 100 main crops, especially fruits, which require pollination every year. This will drastically affect, jam, jelly, wine, nuts and sugar manufacturing all of which are a part of our day to day meals. The bees work is attributed to value over $14 billion in the US alone. Their death will cause famines and massive increase in the food products price, making jams and wine the food of kings. Conclusion Albert Einstein said mankind will have only four years to live if bees went extinct. The threat which was long conceived a myth has now started to come true. It is the right time for the human kind to wake up and start taking better care of the environment for our own safety and well being. References 1. Cox-Foster D and Engelsdorp D (2009), Saving the Honeybee. Scientific American. 2. Morse R (1978). Honey bee pests, predators, and diseases. Cornell University Press. 3. Winston M, Dropki, J and Taylor O (1981), Demography and life history characteristics of two honey bee races (Apis mellifera). Oecologia. Read More