Humans to blame for virus killing world's honeybees
Honeybees all over the world are falling ill due to a deadly virus and humans are to blame, a new study to be published Friday in the journal Science reports.
The disease known as Deformed wing virus (DWV) is a global epidemic that has killed - millions of honeybees over the last few decades. While a lot of bee viruses stem from natural causes, this one was spread by the worldwide trade of European honeybees carrying Varroa mites.
Normally, neither the mite nor the virus are harmful to the insects. However, when put together the two
decimate bee populations because the mite feeds on larvae as well as increases the virus' effect on adult bees. To better understand this relationship, researchers tracked the Varroa mite's spread across the world. They also collected hundreds of virus samples from bees and mites in 17 countries and compared the DNA with a global database, Gizmodo reports.
The data revealed that DWV traveled from Europe to North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Such a rapid spread across so many areas of the planet points to humans as the cause. This is because the disease could not spread that fast without the widespread shipping of colonies from one place to another.
The problem began during the mid-20th century when species like the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) began to be shipped all over the world. While this change was good for agriculture as a whole, the routine practice of swapping of honeybee colonies across national borders led to a number of ecological problems. For example, the United States honeybee population fell 59 percent between 1947 and 2005. This was a result of 'colony collapse disorder,' which was likely caused by a variety of factors, such as pesticides, agricultural infestation, and, of course, deformed wing virus.
"Domesticated honeybee colonies are hugely important for our agriculture systems, but this study shows the risks of moving animals and plants around the world," said co-author Professor Roger Butlin, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Sheffield, in a statement. "The consequences can be devastating, both for domestic animals and for wildlife. The risk of introducing viruses or other pathogens is just one of many potential dangers."
It is going to be a tough battle, researchers say, but steps can be taken to control the disease. Tight regulation of bee transportation across borders is an important step, as is routine health screenings for the insects. While some of these precautions have been implemented in the past decade, they will not be effective unless applied universally.
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