Mystery Plague Threatens Bees in U.S., Europe

As Mystery Plague Threatens to Wipe Out Bees, Scientist Reveal: Our Survival Depends on Them
By Alison Bejamin and Brian Mccallum, Daily Mail (UK), 6/23/2008

…So far, a third of all honeybees in America have died and the honeybee population in Europe has been devastated.

Sixty years ago, in England and Wales, there were more than 360,000 hives; now there are just 270,000 across the whole of Britain.

But most perplexing of all is that no one knows why this is happening — and what to do about it. Adult bees have been leaving their hives and not returning, leaving their queen, eggs and larvae to starve to death.

This phenomenon has a suitably modern name — Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) — and theories as to what causes it range from mobile phones interfering with the bees’ navigation systems to pesticide poisoning and exposure to GM crops.

More than a year after scientists began investigating, they are still only following vague leads…