van Engelsdorp Dennis, Hayes Jerry, Underwood Robyn M, Pettis Jeffery
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry-Apiculture, Harrisburg, PA, USA.
PLoS One. 2008;3(12):e4071. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004071. Epub 2008 Dec 30.
Honey bees are an essential component of modern agriculture. A recently recognized ailment, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), devastates colonies, leaving hives with a complete lack of bees, dead or alive. Up to now, estimates of honey bee population decline have not included losses occurring during the wintering period, thus underestimating actual colony mortality. Our survey quantifies the extent of colony losses in the United States over the winter of 2007-2008.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Surveys were conducted to quantify and identify management factors (e.g. operation size, hive migration) that contribute to high colony losses in general and CCD symptoms in particular. Over 19% of the country's estimated 2.44 million colonies were surveyed. A total loss of 35.8% of colonies was recorded; an increase of 11.4% compared to last year. Operations that pollinated almonds lost, on average, the same number of colonies as those that did not. The 37.9% of operations that reported having at least some of their colonies die with a complete lack of bees had a total loss of 40.8% of colonies compared to the 17.1% loss reported by beekeepers without this symptom. Large operations were more likely to have this symptom suggesting that a contagious condition may be a causal factor. Sixty percent of all colonies that were reported dead in this survey died without dead bees, and thus possibly suffered from CCD. In PA, losses varied with region, indicating that ambient temperature over winter may be an important factor.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Of utmost importance to understanding the recent losses and CCD is keeping track of losses over time and on a large geographic scale. Given that our surveys are representative of the losses across all beekeeping operations, between 0.75 and 1.00 million honey bee colonies are estimated to have died in the United States over the winter of 2007-2008. This article is an extensive survey of U.S. beekeepers across the continent, serving as a reference for comparison with future losses as well as providing guidance to future hypothesis-driven research on the causes of colony mortality.
蜜蜂是现代农业的重要组成部分。一种最近才被认识的疾病——蜂群崩溃失调症（CCD），正在摧毁蜂群，导致蜂巢中完全没有蜜蜂，无论死活。到目前为止，对蜜蜂数量下降的估计并未包括越冬期间的损失，因此低估了实际蜂群死亡率。我们的调查量化了2007 - 2008年冬季美国蜂群损失的程度。
方法/主要发现：进行了调查，以量化和确定导致总体蜂群高损失尤其是导致蜂群崩溃失调症症状的管理因素（如经营规模、蜂箱迁移）。对全国估计的244万个蜂群中的超过19%进行了调查。记录到蜂群总损失率为35.8%；与去年相比增加了11.4%。为杏仁授粉的经营活动损失的蜂群数量与未进行此类授粉的经营活动平均损失数量相同。报告至少有一些蜂群死亡且完全没有蜜蜂的37.9%的经营活动，其蜂群总损失率为40.8%，而没有这种症状的养蜂人报告的损失率为17.1%。大型经营活动更有可能出现这种症状，这表明一种传染性状况可能是一个致病因素。在本次调查中报告死亡的所有蜂群中，60%死亡时没有死蜂，因此可能患有蜂群崩溃失调症。在宾夕法尼亚州，损失因地区而异，这表明冬季的环境温度可能是一个重要因素。
结论/意义：对于理解近期的损失和蜂群崩溃失调症而言，最重要的是长期且在大地理范围内跟踪损失情况。鉴于我们的调查代表了所有养蜂经营活动的损失情况，估计在2007 - 2008年冬季美国有75万至100万个蜜蜂蜂群死亡。本文是对美国大陆各地养蜂人的广泛调查，可作为与未来损失进行比较的参考，也为未来关于蜂群死亡率原因的假设驱动研究提供指导。
