Farm Bill Being Finalized
A Conference Committee will soon begin to reconcile the House version of the Farm Bill with the Senate version of the Farm Bill.
There are several provisions in the two bills affecting beekeepers. ABF Vice President David Mendes encourages all beekeepers to contact their Congressmen and tell them how important these provisions are:
To contact any Congressman's office via phone, call the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121, as for the Senator's or Representative's office. When connected ask for the Agricultural Aide.
You can contact Congressmen via their websites at www.Senate.gov and www.House.gov.
Beeing Alive: The Mysterious Decline of North America's Top Pollinator
By DAVID JAKUBIAK, Contributor
If you've got bees buzzing around your backyard, your local park, your office courtyard, or your school playground, May Berenbaum would love to see 'em. Berenbaum, head of the department of entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, also runs the university's BeeSpotter program, a project that relies on citizen scientists to identify bee populations around Illinois.
Imported Bees Not Source of Virus Associated with Colony Collapse Disorder
BELTSVILLE, Md., November 19, 2007 -- Scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have found that the Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), a virus recently shown to be associated with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) of honey bees, has been in the United States since at least 2002, according to a note published in the American Bee Journal, December 2007.
CCD May Be Linked to Virus from Australia, Scientists Say; ABF Seeks Moratorium on Imports
The determination that Colony Collapse Disorder might be linked to a virus imported with Australian bees has caused the ABF Board of Directors to call for a moratorium on the imports. In a letter to Cindy J. Smith, administrator of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the ABF asked that imports be suspended until a survey can be completed to determine what honey bee pests and pathogens exist in the United States and until scientists determine that restarting imports would present no hazards to U.S. honey bee health. American Honey Producers Assn. sent APHIS a similar request.
Virus Discovery Important, Preliminary Finding
The discovery of a virus – apparently associated with Colony Collapse Disorder and apparently imported from Australia – points to the need for additional honey bee research and, therefore, increased funding for this research.
