Scientists from the International Centre of Insect Physiology & Ecology (ICIPE) in Kenya, are working with colleagues from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to eradicate a beetle invasion that is endangering the $200 million-worth honey industry in the US.
The beetle invasion which scientists have dubbed 'Collapse Colony Disorder,' was described by media reports having triggered an exodus of millions of honeybees from hives in Europe and the US, causing losses estimated at billions of dollars.
The small hive beetle,Aethina tumida, is described as an invasive organism indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is effectively dealt with by African honeybees.
The scientists will explore the possibilities of equipping the European honeybees with the ability to fight off the small hive beetle. "We have published a paper detailing the relationship between the two, and are in the process of preparing a research proposal for possible funding," said Dr. Baldwyn Torto, Icipe's head of behavioural and chemical ecology.
He says Icipe is confident that the research aimed at understanding the beetle will prove more important than the adoption of a quick chemical-based option of eradicating the problematic beetle in the US and Europe.
Outbreaks of the Collapse Colony Disorder were first reported in the US in November 2006. The exodus has since spread to 24 US states, as well as to Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Beekeepers have been losing from 30-90 per cent of their bees. The Economist magazine of April 26 called the phenomenon a "mystery," baffling researchers and beekeepers alike. "What appear to be normal healthy adults suddenly disappear within two days, leaving their queen, food stores and young." Scientists estimate that each colony has between 40,000 and 60,000 bees.
Initially, it was suspected that the exodus of bees from hives in the US and Europe had something to do with a failure in the bees' immune system. Other scientists sought answers in the bees' genetic make up, with still others interestingly linking it to the widespread use of mobile phones. But now scientists say that the problematic relationship between the small hive beetle and the European honeybee springs from the fact that the latter is not equipped to handle the beetle, unlike its African cousin.
ICIPE and USDA have already published a research paper that shows that the small hive beetle might be responsible for the mass exodus of the European honeybees. Published in PNAS, a journal of the US National Academy of Science on May 4, the article reports that the small hive beetle does not affect African honeybees because the latter have "evolved effective methods to mitigate beetle infestation."
It seems that the African honeybee does this through a number of behavioural methods, including removing the beetle's eggs from honeycombs as it cleans up the hive, or "imprisoning" the invading beetles in the hives' cracks and crevices.
Dr. Torto said that African bees mainly bank on their aggressiveness to accomplish this. But the European honeybee is not as lucky. As a result, each time the beetle, which has a special appetite for the pollen that bees collect and store in hives, infests a hive in the US, it introduces a fungus that promotes the development of yeast, causing the bees to vacate the hive.
"Beetles are scavengers and their job is to clean up. In the case of the small hive beetle, it uses a fungus to digest pollen. This fungus causes fermentation, in effect causing a change of the chemistry in the hives. Since bees are very sensitive to such variations, they eventually abandon the hives," said Torto.
Relying on this information, ICIPE and USDA scientists now intend to go further and establish how this unique trait in African honeybees can be used to deal with the Collapse Colony Disorder. According to Torto, the research will also enable Kenya and other African countries to be prepared in the unlikely event that the problem hits Africa.
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