FRESNO, Calif. – Northern California scientists say they have found a possible explanation for the honey bee die-off: A parasitic fly that hijacks the bees’ bodies and causes them to abandon hives.
The symptoms mirror colony collapse disorder, in which all the adult honey bees in a colony suddenly disappear. The disorder continues to decimate hives in the U.S. and overseas.
The disease is of great concern, because bees pollinate about a third of the United States’ food supply. Its presence is especially alarming in California, the nation’s top producer of fruits and vegetables, where bees play an essential role in the $1 billion almond industry and other crops.
The latest study, published Tuesday in the science journal PLoS ONE, points to the parasitic fly as the new threat to honey bees. It’s another step in ongoing research to find the cause of the disease.
Researchers haven’t been able to pin down an exact cause of colony collapse or find a way to prevent it. Research so far points to a combination of factors including pesticide contamination, a lack of blooms — and hence nutrition — and mites, fungi, viruses and parasites.
Interaction among the parasite and multiple pathogens could be one possible factor in
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