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.

The possible link of CCD and the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) was revealed in articles by Science magazine in its online edition, Science Express, on Sept. 6, and in its print edition on Sept. 7. The authors of the scientific report have been careful to say they have not proven that IAPV causes CCD, nor that the Australian imports introduced IAPV to the United States.

IAPV was first reported in Israel in 2004. At presstime, it was not clear how long the virus has been known in Australian bees, but Australian bee experts say no ill effects of the virus have been seen there.

The U.S. researchers reported in Science that IAPV was found in all of the four CCD-affected apiaries in their test and in the one sample from a healthy package of Australian bees, but in neither of the two non-CCD apiaries tested. They also tested royal jelly imported from China and found IAPV in two of those samples. “Either [the packages from Australia or the royal jelly from China] may have served as potential points of entry into the U.S., with the Australian packages being more likely,” Diana Cox-Foster said in an email message to industry leaders. Dr. Cox-Foster, of Penn State University and the lead researcher on the project, noted: “Further research is required to say exactly from where the virus originated and how it spreading and changing (mutating) as it moves.”

Looking ahead, Dr. Cox-Foster said, “The next phase of research needs to test whether or not IAPV is a direct causal agent of CCD or just a really good marker for CCD [an organism found only in CCD colonies]. In either case, we do believe that detection of IAPV will be important in determining the probability that colonies are apt to undergo CCD and that this will enable closer monitoring of bee health.”

While limited tests of samples that were taken prior to the start of Australian imports in February 2005 have not found IAPV, researchers want to conduct more comprehensive tests, both on historic samples and on current colonies to determine whether IAPV was already in the U.S. or is a recent phenomenon. ABF President Danny Weaver and Dr. Jeff Pettis of the Beltsville Bee Lab, in Australia for Apimondia, helped to put into place a cooperative agreement under which U.S. and Australian researchers would collect and share samples from colonies in both countries.

“We also do not believe that IAPV can be acting alone to cause CCD, but rather that the virus requires additional triggers,” Dr. Cox-Foster pointed out. “Other pathogens (such as Kashmir Bee Virus, Nosema apis, and Nosema ceranae) may be important in triggering CCD, but by themselves are not the cause of CCD. Also environmental chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides) and/or nutritional stress may also act as triggers. Of course, the varroa mite may also help to stress colonies and allow for onset of CCD; however, our data clearly demonstrate that varroa, tracheal mites, and nosema do not underlie CCD by themselves.”

As to why the Australians have found no ill effects of IAPV, the researchers point to the absence of Varroa in that country.

Dr. Cox-Foster two of her fellow researchers, Dennis van Englesdorp of Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and Dr. Pettis, prepared the accompanying “Colony Collapse Disorder and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus” briefing paper to help beekeepers understand the findings.