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Israeli acute paralysis virus

12K views 39 replies 26 participants last post by  Ian 
#1 · (Edited)
#2 ·
A glimmer of hope?

>"Preliminary research shows some bees can integrate genetic information from the virus into their own genomes, apparently giving them resistance, Sela said in a telephone interview. Sela added that about 30 percent of the bees he’s examined had done so.

Those naturally “transgenic” honeybees theoretically could be propagated to create stocks of virus-resistant insects, Lipkin said."

Teenage Mutant Bees to the rescue! If 30% of our bees can become resistant we'll be in luck. But that does not seem to reflect in the losses of 90% that were reported by the big commercial opperations.
 
#10 ·
Well if its true, pack it up its gonna be a long haul before it stabilizes.

Someone better get fast at it to isolate strains that are resistant to the virus or is doom and gloom for keeps and those needing pollinators.

I guess that should be a lesson to all, not only should there be rigorous quarantine of bees outside of the US, but each state should be providing their own pollinators for crops; too little too late but I'm sure the California Almond growers must be scrambling.

The whole idea of interstate migratory pollinators is a formula for disaster, its too bad there were not good practices in effect years ago to stop interstate transportation of bees.

Maybe this will be a wake up call to stop any interstate sale or shipment of bees. Again, too little too late.


Anyone considering Mason bee futures?????
 
#12 · (Edited)
just read the original article in Science. I wish they would release the article on their website without a subscription. There is some very important details that the regular media is leaving out. Surprised? I'll try and summarize some important and interesting details without straight out copying.

-------

Calderone, N. says we've identified a suspect whereas before we didn't even have circumstantial evidence.

research team ordered Australian bees and found IAPV (isreli virus) in most of them

4 beekeeping operations with CCD and two without CCD where tested
25 of 30 colonies had IAPV,
1 of 21 healthy colonies had IAPV
Hornig, M. says its a "good marker"
bee virologist de Miranda, J. says its "Chicken-and-egg problem" CCD hives tend to accumulate many secondary diseases could be just another

Bromenshenk, J. of Bee Alert Tech. Montana doubts link to CCD. his collaborators have spotted over a dozen known and new viruses including IAPV in Florida, California, and Australia, but none associated with CCD. He says no clear pattern yet.

All 4 operations infected had either imported Australian bees or had hives close to others with Australian bees.

the 2 CCD free beeks where in Hawaii and Penslvania, neither had Australians

No CCD in Australia, Canada, or Israel but IAPV is there.
Perhaps not in Australia because no Varroa?
Pettis notes Varroa present in Canada and Israel but no CCD
Pettis notes other stresses in US like trucking and poor nutrition.

Experiments are beginning to try and recreate CCD with IAPV with combination of 3 pathogens and stress.

Sela in Isreal says IAPV deadly. bees feed in experiment die at 98% within days
but some bees resistant
1/3 isreal bee samples show incorporation of virus into genome.
experimented with these show 20% surived when injected IAPV.

Cox-Foster advises beekeepers to keep bees healthy as possible and not to reuse hives from collapsed colonies

summarized from
Stokstad, E. (2007). Genomics: Puzzling decline of U.S. bees linked to virus from Australia. News of the Week.. Science 317: 1304-1305.
 
#13 ·
Sad to say I bet importation of Australian bees will continue this year even though its known to be importing a virus not previously found in US. Importers will note that the virus may have been in US previously as not many samples tested previously. Also will probably note its already here so they are not importing a new virus even though they are the ones that probably already imported it. too much $$$$$$$$$$.

Beekeepers should take note of what they are buying. which is bees that are confirmed to be caring a known, deadly, not previously reported bee virus in US. Quote from the above referenced article "Moreover, THE TEAM ORDERED BEES FROM AUSTRALIA AND DISCOVERED IAPV IN MOST OF THEM." So, regardless of the cause of CCD, the above statement remains true and known.

Shipping bees is bad news. The further they are shipped the greater potential for exotic pathogen spread.
 
#14 ·
Shipping bees is bad news. The further they are shipped the greater potential for exotic pathogen spread.
Well, fortunately and unfortunately, we live in a global economy, based on a huge import and export infrastructure.

Fortunately because we as consumers can buy goods at competitive prices, even though we really should consider the downsides of this approach (that's a topic for another thread).

Unfortunate because we are not always willing to fund (read taxes) increased services for monitoring imports by USDA APHIS. The agency is not only fiscally strapped, but has to address and respond to multiple situations affecting many agricultural industries. Look at the logging and lumber sector alone: $420M annually spent to minimize the affects of some other imported vectors. Examples include Sudden Oak Death, Emerald Ash Borer, and the Asian Longhorned Beetle. The Ash Borer is now moving into my state, and it is being assisted by happy campers brings loads of infected firewood over the border from infected adjacent states.

Oh, don't forget another "imported" treat: The Zebra Mussel which is now common in our state waters. Ignorant boaters are dropping them all over the place.

Pests and disease transfers on a worldwide and even a local basis has a long history. The fact remains that if CCD is indeed an "imported" strain of virus, it is up to us as beekeepers to follow procedures to minimize the spread of this virus by screening our purchases and our transfer of bees, and also avoid the contamination and transfer of equipment. And, probably most important of all, develop a working congressional lobby that speaks on our behalf -- we shouldn't complain about future increases in fees to attain these goals.

My 2 cents.

MM
 
#15 ·
I just had a chance to listen to Ira Flatow on public radio do a spot on it. The entymologists he interviewed very specifically stated that they do not yet know if the virus is a cause of CCD or merely a very good marker for it. A good deal more work needs to be done.
 
#20 ·
OK so say it is a virus that's causing CCD.
I have yet to hear WHERE the bees are when they open a hive that's gone with CCD.
Everything I've seen shows all the beeks saying "that hives empty" and they show a hive with NO BEES.
None alive and none dead.
Wouldn't the last one out dye trying to clean out the hive ???
Just my observation.
 
#21 ·
Church.......If I live close to the state line how do i keep my bees from flying across it??? THere is no way for Ca. to be able to supply enough bees for pollination of almonds....and beekeepers have to move hives to be profitable and pay the bills>.

Now about the virus.....I still believe when it all comes to a head, that something has weakened the bees immune system and let he virus do its damage. That something in my opinion is systemic insecticide that we all know as Goucho, Provo, Admire.....neonicotineoid insecticides. All that said there are many colonies dying due to mites, mite related stress mite related controls used which damage the queenm drones and bees in general. But the CCD will be linked back to sysyemic insecticide!!! Wait and see!!!!1
 
#31 · (Edited)
Well, there are California laws prohibiting beekeeping near mandarin orange groves, the same could apply for state boundries. It need not even be a point of state boundries but geographical sections...........not many bees will make it across the deserts of Nevada or Arizona.......so there are natural boundries to control spread. Trucking in bees from across the nation certainly is not only a recipe for epidemic disease spread, but can stress the bees enough to weaken their immunity so virii such as IAPV can flourish. Not that there is any indication that IAPV needs a weakened state; it seems plenty virulent on its own.

If the report on IAPV is correct its very fatal; no one will profit if there are no crops or bees. Interstate quarantine may slow or prevent some from being infected until there are more answers; if you suggest that we should ignore a pathogenic virus to profit then the entire industry, including agriculture is doomed. If the practice of migratory interstate pollenation continues without checks, it will not be IF it will be WHEN? the entire industry fails.

California has enough resources and room to provide ALL the bees needed for in state pollination and if smart would ban all out of state bees and build up local stocks.........thus ensuring the prevention of a total collapse.....after all, if half the bees die each year, there wont be enough bees nationally to supply them anyhow..........its time to quarantine until more is learned. A huge blunder is to bring in thousands of nucs from Australia.

California almond growers could be self sufficient in hives within 3 years and as a whole save money by using their own instate hives for pollination; they are just too short sighted to see that pandemic problems such as CCD COST them more money in the long run than securing clean and localized hives for their use. Theres no way they will survive if they continue to import diseased bees as they are doing.........foolish behavior and unregulated. Its time the USDA put a stop to imports both internationally and interstate.

I'm sure if IAPV is as virulent as reported, most commercial keepers will not be able to afford to be in business for long.....if they continue to have lax quarantine standards. Theres no profit in wholesale loss.

In the long run, with quarantine and strict regulation, the industry as a whole may survive, without it, there is nothing stopping widespread infection and the ultimate fate; complete failure of the industry..........

Theres nothing to suggest that facing insecticide use should be curtailed, in fact all factors; nosema c., pesticides, chemicals used in hives, better management and rules and regulations to prevent the spread of infectious diseases should be addressed. Migratory practices as a whole are extremely stressful on many levels, it spreads infectious diseases such as Nosema c., IAPV and other virii, parasites such as varroa and t. mites, and thus forces the keepers to medicate, fumigate and mitigate.........with chemicals......another stress.

If you curtail the interstate trucking of hives, you reduce MOST stresses associated, if the keepers cant survive with that; let them find another job or state..........simply put, if the choice is healthy bees or wealthy beekeepers, the choice is evident, since if it continues unchecked, there will be NO beekeepers at all.
 
#22 ·
Does this virus stay alive without the bee host?

Is that why it takes some time before robbing, shb and wax moths start invading a collapsed hive, because they can sense it?

Do healthy minimal stressed colonies have a resistance just by being robust?

Didn't one of the reports comment about Royal Jelly imported from China as also turning up positive for the virus?

Got more questions just too late to work the brain...
 
#23 ·
Since when does a hint turn into blame?

"This does not identify IAPV as the cause of CCD," said
Pettis. "What we have found is strictly a strong correlation
of the appearance of IAPV and CCD together. We have not
proven a cause-and-effect connection."

One can rephrase the above quotation with a one-word change and be just as correct.

"This does not identify varroa as the cause of CCD," said
Pettis. "What we have found is strictly a strong correlation
of the appearance of varroa and CCD together. We have not
proven a cause-and-effect connection."

Reading on:

"I still believe that multiple factors are involved in CCD,"
said Jeff Pettis, "and what we need to do is look at
combinations such as parasites, stress and nutrition
(together with the virus)."

Reading on a little further:

> IAPV-afflicted bees are typically found dead outside their hives.

The primary definition of CCD is that there are no bees dead outside the hive, and it was called disappearing disease before it was renamed CCD.

> Also open is the question of how the virus arrived in the US.
> One finger of suspicion points to Australia, from where the
> US began importing honeybees in 2004 - the very year that CCD
> appeared in US hives.

This ignores the fact that disappearing disease was reported in Florida two years before imports began. Also, Australia is an island that has a strict quarantine with stringent rules and regulations governing the importation of queen stock. It seems like an unlikely source of a new pathogen.

Were did IAPV originate? The researchers in Israel isolated it but no one has identified the source yet, and they also found IAPV in royal jelly imported from China.

The article at http://tinyurl.com/2kbtjt notes that information is not being shared between members of the CCD team.

Some of the other members however are frustrated because
they too are being kept out of the loop.

"One would hope that if they had some new information that
was germane to solving the problem, whoever it is, would
share it with the rest of us. But we haven’t seen anything,
we’ve only heard rumors," says one of the members who
wished not be identified.


The jury is still out.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Jaipea, a hint turns into blame when the press gets ahold of it. I think it'll be found to be a combination of things that contribute to the collapse. Maybe the disease makes all the bees thirsty and they go looking for water and die in flight away from the hive? Maybe it should be called "Lemmings Disease". Who knows what we'll find.
 
#25 ·
"...Australia is an island that has a strict quarantine with stringent rules and regulations governing the importation of queen stock. It seems like an unlikely source of a new pathogen." JaiPea

This by no means that they would never develop a novel virus that could be exported to other countries. The chief stock and trade of a virus is the ability to mutate regularly.

If an imported or exotic virus is deadly only in the presence of Varroa stressed hive that just came off a pollination that exposed said hive to sub lethal neonicatinoids, then what can you really say was the cause of death?

JaiPea what is your source for the statement about the royal jelly?
 
#26 ·
acute paralysis virus

honeybees as well as most creatures have always faced survivability issues, it is only with the advent of faster modes of travel or transmission that they are now more likely to have more of these issues at a single time, the only real answer is honeybees with a very broad genetic base which will lead to possibly more inbuilt tolerance and the chance for adaptability or mutation, also bees with broad genetics allows for easier expression of recessive genes which may have built in characteristics which may help with their survivability problems. it seems that in some cases beekeeping is almost back to square one with selection, some who are on the survivability track using ferals and other survivor types have this broadened base and will be more likely to have most of their bees survive as long as they continue selection and do not go to extremes to protect their bees and allow for survival of the best.
 
#27 ·
> This by no means that they would never develop a novel virus
> that could be exported to other countries. The chief stock
> and trade of a virus is the ability to mutate regularly.

IAPV is not a novel virus, it is in Asia (China) and the Middle East (Israel, and now that it is known how to test for it chances are that it will be found many more places (even here...).

> If an imported or exotic virus is deadly only in the presence
> of Varroa stressed hive that just came off a pollination that
> exposed said hive to sub lethal neonicatinoids, then what can
> you really say was the cause of death?

China and Israel have varroa, and they have not had the level of CCD that we have. There's no reason to believe their hives are any less stressed than ours.

> what is your source for the statement about the royal jelly?

Google IAPV and China, and you'll get lots. Not everything out there consists of sensational extracts and false conclusions, there are some descriptions which deserve reading e.g.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-8/118914209659770.xml&coll=1

"We don't know how IAPV got here," said Jeffery Pettis, an entomologist with the federal government's Bee Research Laboratory. "All we know is it's in packaged bees from Australia and royal jelly from China. ... We're not making a claim at this time about Australian imports, because we might have had IAPV before we began importing bees. But because we found other pathogens in the royal jelly, right now we recommend that beekeepers do not use imported royal jelly."

Another conclusion which is implied rather than explicit.

"All of the infected honeybee operations sampled in the study either used, or were intermingled with, imported bees from Australia."

It appears that the scientists did not test any packages directly from Australia, and if so that has to be a blunder of the first order - pointing fingers based on suspicion instead of fact. The Australian bees could have been contaminated by IAPV after landing here if they are more susceptible than our bees.

There seems to be at least as much innuendo as facts in this report that was leaked prematurely.
 
#28 ·
The reason these reports are often witheld from the public is exactly what we are seeing in this thread. The report only details one experiment which shows a statistical link between the virus and CCD. The researchers make it very plain that they are not claiming the virus is the direct or only cause of the disease. It is the media and readers like us who are jumping to that conclusion, then criticizing the research. Next, we interpolate from the results to subjectively support our own pet hypotheses. Back Off. We are looking at a work in progress and saying we don't like the primer on the canvas.
 
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