Study notes key factors in bee colonv deaths

摘要

A NEW long-term study of honeybee health has found that a little-understood disease the researchers are calling "idiopathic brood disease syndrome" (IBDS), which kills off bee larvae, is the largest risk factor for predicting the death of a bee colony. "Historically, we've seen symptoms similar to IBDS associated with viruses spread by large-scale infestations of parasitic mites," said Dr. David Tarpy, an associate professor of entomology at North Carolina State University and co-author of a paper describing the study. "Now, we're seeing these symptoms — a high percentage of larvae deaths — in colonies that have relatively few of these mites. That suggests that IBDS is present even in colonies with low mite loads, which is not what we expected."