by Anne Sherrod
According to the Canadian Association of Professional Apriculturalists, Canada lost 29 per cent of its honeybees last winter. The previous average national loss was 15 per cent. There have been many claims in Canada that these losses are not from Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the mysterious malady that wiped out tens of billions of bees in the US last winter. However, some Canadian beekeepers have reported losses on the order of 50-80 per cent, and some of them say they are seeing symptoms of CCD.
Whatever the cause, CCD is just one catastrophe among many that have been hitting commercial and wild bee populations since the late 1980s.
They are all part of a long-term decline of domestic and wild pollinators (such organisms as bees, birds, bats and butterflies) around the world.
In North America it began when imported honeybees brought non-native diseases that decimated commercial and wild bee populations. Commercial beekeeping also led to unnatural practices to boost honey production and pollination services for crop growers. For many years conventional beekeeping has relied heavily upon the use of chemicals and antibiotics to kill various disease agents. Now the organisms that prey on bees are increasingly resistant to these treatments, while bees are showing alarming signs of immune deficiency.
That being said, the particular symptoms that characterize CCD are relatively new, especially the fact that the bees just disappear rather than dying near their hives. Concerns about genetically-modified (GM) crops have been discounted by some scientists but not by others. There have been massive losses of bees in Europe and other parts of the world that have very little land planted in GM crops.
However, such arguments may fail to address the full scope of the risks of GM crops. Recently, Professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz of the University of Jena in Germany discovered that the gene inserted in oilseed rape had transferred into bacteria in the intestines of young bees (Guardian, May 28, 2007.)
Intestinal bacteria play important roles in the health of the organisms they colonize. Any change in their genetic structure could, under the right conditions, reproduce itself rapidly and have serious consequences for the bees (and humans too).
Meanwhile, the synthetic insecticide imidacloprid and its relatives, the neonicotinoids, continue to be suspects in the CCD investigation. These insecticides are highly toxic to bees. Recent research has found imidacloprid in corn, sunflower and rape pollen at levels high enough to pose a threat to bees. It impairs their memory, which might explain why the CCD victims disappeared rather than returning to their hives.
A preliminary report by the CCD Working Group, a panel of bee experts in the US, states that certain fungicides may increase the toxicity of neonicotinoids over 1,000 times in laboratory tests. Both the neonicotinoids and the fungicides are commonly used.
One Canadian beekeeper has pointed out to the Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) that corn syrup is fed to commercial honeybee colonies throughout North America. Corn syrup is the concentrated product of a huge amount of corn. What happens to neonicotinoids in the manufacturing process? Has anyone tested corn syrup for contamination?
The PMRA, which writes the permits for the use of imidacloprid, says it has no testing requirements for imidacloprid in corn syrup. This is characteristic of much that we do not know about the poisons we pour into the environment every year.
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Anne Sherrod has been writing on environmental issues in BC for 25 years. She is currently Chair of the Valhalla Wilderness Society.
[Watershed Sentinel, May/June, 2007]