Bees

In June I posted What Happened to the Bees? referring to a Daily Kos summary of the possible causes of the collapse of bee hives.

A friend pointed me at this Reuters story Asian Parasite Killing Western Bees. A Spanish scientist says "A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries. The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae." They've found nosema ceranae in 50% percent of Spanish hives as well as in Austria, Slovenia and other parts of Eastern Europe as well as in Canada and Argentina. They haven't tested in the US.

That Daily Kos summary mentions nosema cerane. "A fungus, Nosema ceranae has been implicated in some collapsed hives, but other hives infected with this fungus don't collapse while some collapsed hives don't have the fungus. That doesn't mean that some as yet undetected disease isn't responsible." The wikipedia page on nosema cerane supports that quoting some articles saying it has been found in some US bees but can't be the sole cause, though the links to the source material are no longer functioning. The good news is that if this is the cause there's a relatively cheap effective treatment.