At the beginning of the year reports of colony collapse disorder of bee populations seemed to swarm around the world. Many causes were suggested. Recent research reported in Science suggests that one organism, Israeli acute paralysis virus of bees, was strongly correlated with CCD. Unfortunately, this does not mean that prevention or a cure are yet available. And there remain other influences on bee help. What remains true is that bees are critical to the food web as pollinators so declines in their population is bad for all of us, and organic (or similar) bee-keeping methods are more resistant to disease and reduce spreading of disease because methods are not industrial.
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