May 1, 2007

Bee deaths: big buzz over small concern
Oregon isn’t short of agriculture’s critical pollinators

By CORY ELDRIDGE
of The Chronicle

     Bee keepers, orchardists and cherry lovers can rest easy that their livelihood and delicacies won’t be ruined by mites or colony collapse disorder any time soon, according to industry experts.
     Reports of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in California and the East Coast, along with this month’s discovery of honeybee-killing varroa mites in Hawaiian hives, sparked media-driven fears that the maladies will wipe out honeybee populations across the U.S. Western honeybees pollinate more than 90 vegetables and fruits ranging from carrots to cherries.
     “They’re absolutely critical,” said Lynn Long, an Oregon State University horticulturist based in The Dalles. “There was speculation several years ago that cherries was one of those crops that could be wind pollinated. [But research showed] you need a pollinator.”
     That leaves a great majority of Wasco County’s agriculture dependent on the buzzing workers. Last October a report by the National Research Council, a congressional advisory group, said bad counting methods by the U.S. Department of Agriculture impede research on pollinator decline. But the report said that there is sufficient proof of shrinking populations of some pollinators, including honeybees.
     But declining honeybee populations is not new, said Michael Burgett, professor emeritus for apiculture at OSU. He does not believe a honeybee collapse resulting in a collapse of the Oregon fruit industry is imminent.
     “I watched a CNN report on colony collapse and it made me sick,” he said, calling the coverage “much ado about nothing.”
     That story, among others, reported beekeepers losing up to 90 percent of their bees over the past six months due to CCD. Burgett said that no official count has been made and that beekeepers normally lose 25 percent of their bee population every year.
     The newly named CCD describes the sudden loss of a major percent of a hive’s workers. Where they go, why they go and what causes them to go is unclear, and Burgett said, “We will never pin down one cause.”
     While Burgett doesn’t belittle the impact of CCD on individual beekeepers, he sees no need for industry-wide hysteria.
     “Colony collapse is nothing new; it’s happened before,” he said. “The first time I saw it was in the mid-1970s, they called it disappearing disease. Then disappearing disease disappeared.
     “I think it’s mite resurgence; I think it’s bad weather back East; and I think it’s bad beekeeping,” he added.
     Bob Morgan, a beekeeper and orchardist in The Dalles, agrees that CCD is another facet of a 20-year mite infestation. In the mid-1980s tracheal then varroa mites entered the U.S. and spread quickly. Only two years after varroa mites appeared in Florida Burgett discovered them in Oregon. The pinpoint-sized parasites leech blood from their hosts, deteriorate their productivity and cause mass death.
     Both Morgan and Burgett recognize the mites as part of the bee business.
“We’ll just pay the money and get new colonies,” Morgan said if he loses colonies. “Pollination prices will probably rise here in the West.”
     Proper mite control is required of beekeepers, Burgett said. He even believes the mites benefited beekeeping.
     “It took out the slovenly operators,” he said. “Your average beekeeper is better than one 20 years ago. Prior to the mites, you always got bees at a bargain price. Beekeepers are finally approaching a fair return for their service, and the growers are getting better bees.”
     Morgan said that if he did lose a large number of bees, other Northwest beekeepers would help him.
     “If there was a shortage people would probably not see it,” he said. “But us bee keepers would have to accommodate it.”
     While the potential for an acute bee shortage in California does exist, next year seems secure for Oregon agriculturists.
     “Is it serious? Yes,” Burgett said of CCD. “Will this affect the fruit industry in Oregon? I don’t think so.”