By David Stauth, for the Lebanon Express | Posted: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 12:00 am
CORVALLIS - The “colony collapse disorder" that has alarmed beekeepers and agricultural experts all over the United States is, in all likelihood, a normal variation on problems already known to plague North American honeybees, one expert says. It is not a new and mysterious syndrome.
The cause of unusual levels of bee colony die-offs at specific locations probably relates to local weather issues, bee colony management, pesticide effectiveness, or locally severe concerns with known bee pests, said Michael Burgett, a professor emeritus of entomology at Oregon State University.
Looked at in a broader geographical and historical concept, Burgett said, the existing situation is neither unprecedented nor particularly severe, and certainly not a cause for repeated claims that American agriculture is facing a crisis.
Burgett is one of the world's leading experts on honeybees. He has done research on them for decades in many locations including their ancestral homes in Asia, Africa and Europe, and was the first scientist in the world to warn 25 years ago of the oncoming plague of tracheal and varroa mites that now are a major threat to U.S. honeybees.
In recent months, numerous stories have filled the news with alarming stories of bee colony die-offs, an estimate of 25 percent losses in the nation's honeybee population, billion dollar crop loss concerns, and other issues.
“Some losses have clearly been related to unusually severe winter weather in certain locations, especially in the East," Burgett said. “And I think there may be some other issues we're dealing with, mainly variations on known problems that we can address with research and bee colony management. But the losses overall are just slightly higher than normal."