Colony Collapse Disorder: A Descriptive Study

By D. vanEngelsdorp, Jay D. Evans, C. Saegerman, C. Mullin, E. Haubruge, Bach Kim Nguyen, M. Frazier, J. Frazier, D. Cox-Foster, Yanping Chen and 3 more. PLoS ONE, 2009

1,372 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background Over the last two winters, there have been large-scale, unexplained losses of managed honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies in the United States. In the absence of a known cause, this syndrome was named Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) because the main trait was a rapid loss of adult worker bees. We initiated a descriptive epizootiological study in order to better characterize CCD and compare risk factor exposure between populations afflicted by and not afflicted by CCD. Methods and Principal Findings Of 61 quantified variables (including adult bee physiology, pathogen loads, and pesticide levels), no single measure emerged as a most-likely cause of CCD. Bees in CCD colonies had higher pathogen loads and were co-infected with a greater number of pathogens than control populations, suggesting either an increased exposure to pathogens or a reduced resistance of bees toward pathogens. Levels of the synthetic acaricide coumaphos (used by beekeepers to control the parasitic mite Varroa destructor) were higher in control colonies than CCD-affected colonies. Conclusions/Significance This is the first comprehensive survey of CCD-affected bee populations that suggests CCD involves an interaction between pathogens and other stress factors. We present evidence that this condition is contagious or the result of exposure to a common risk factor. Potentially important areas for future hypothesis-driven research, including the possible legacy effect of mite parasitism and the role of honey bee resistance to pesticides, are highlighted.

Subfields: Genetics, Insect Science, Pharmacology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b4721db873d8e03364cc88c74d243e7fa7779f93

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Citations in the corpus

Dynamic modelling of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony growth and failure (2013, background): “he rate of decline increased yet further in 2006 when beekeeprs in Europe and North America suffered such unusually rapid nd heavy colony losses that a new term was coined to describe he phenomenon: colony collapse disorder or CCD (Ratnieks and arreck, 2010; VanEngelsdorp et al., 2009).”
Pollen nutrition affects honey bee stress resistance (2012, background): “Recently, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) emerged to attack honey bees in the U.S. and has caused 30%-40% loss of bee colonies each year since the fall of 2006 ( vanEngelsdorp et al., 2009 ).”
Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers (2015, background): “Conversely, there are widespread reports of unusually high rates of honey bee colony loss from many parts of the world, sometimes ascribed to a syndrome known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) (9).”
Fatal powdering of bees in flight with particulates of neonicotinoids seed coating and humidity implication (2012, background): “In the last few years, honeybee colonies throughout the world have been subject to rapid losses (Underwood and vanEngelsdorp 2007; vanEngelsdorp et al. 2009), in particular in South Europe in the order of 40% (Mutinelli et al. 2009; Neumann and Carreck 2010).”
Virus infections and winter losses of honey bee colonies (Apis mellifera) (2010, background): “However, it must be pointed out that the term "CCD" should only be applied to the specific set of symptoms described by vanEngelsdorp et al. (2008, 2009, 2010), and not to colony losses in general.”
Biotic and Abiotic Factors Associated with Colonies Mortalities of Managed Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) (2019, background): “Long periods of cold and rainy or hot and dry weather are associated with the sudden and unexplained disappearance of bees and the emptying of hives [28].”
The impact of honey bee colony quality on crop yield and farmers’ profit in apples and pears (2017, methodology): “At each survey, we counted the number of frames covered with bees as an estimation of colony strength (Vanengelsdorp et al., 2009).”
On managing the red mason bee (Osmia bicornis) in apple orchards (2011, positive): “Especially, the phenomenon of colony collapse disorder is a threat to pollination as an ecological service (Neumann and Carreck 2010; Cox-Foster et al. 2007; van Engelsdorp et al. 2009).”
Surveys as a tool to record winter losses of honey bee colonies: a two year case study in Austria and South Tyrol (2010, background): “These symptoms were termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD: vanEngelsdorp et al., 2009).”
The influence of genetic origin and its interaction with environmental effects on the survival of Apis mellifera L. colonies in Europe (2014, background): “…shown to contribute to colony decline is the extended use of pesticides in agricultural systems (Desneux et al., 2007; Frazier et al., 2008; van Engelsdorp et al., 2009; Chauzat et al., 2009; van Engelsdorp and Meixner, 2010), and socio-political aspects such as trade or economics (van…”
A survey of managed honey bee colony losses in the USA, fall 2009 to winter 2010 (2011, background): “…hive or apiary” One of the defining characteristics of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is the complete absence of dead bees in the colony or apiary (vanEngelsdorp et al., 2009), but this survey cannot differentiate between colonies lost to CCD and other conditions that may cause the same symptom.”
Honey bee colony losses (2010, background): “Moreover, colony losses throughout the world are being ascribed to CCD, yet that term was specifically coined to describe a precisely defined set of symptoms (vanEngelsdorp et al., 2009) and not colony losses per se.”
Dominance of Nosema ceranae in honey bees in the Balkan countries in the absence of symptoms of colony collapse disorder (2011, methodology): “In the final re-evaluation, updated CCD characteristics defined by vanEngelsdorp et al. (2009) were taken into consideration.”