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As some one who is very interested in the subject of honey bees, and several decades ago had a bee hive, I've been very concerned about colony collapse disorder. Today I came across this article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-19137-5
Excerpt from the Nature abstract:
"Recent reports of the weakening and periodical high losses of managed honey bee colonies have alarmed beekeeper, farmers and scientists. Infestations with the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor in combination with its associated viruses have been identified as a crucial driver of these health problems. Although yearly treatments are required to prevent collapses of honey bee colonies, the number of effective acaricides is small and no new active compounds have been registered in the past 25 years. RNAi-based methods were proposed recently as a promising new tool. However, the application of these methods according to published protocols has led to a surprising discovery. Here, we show that the lithium chloride that was used to precipitate RNA and other lithium compounds is highly effective at killing Varroa mites when fed to host bees at low millimolar concentrations."
I am in no way, shape or form a biologist, but as I read through the article there was mention of gene targeting and so started to get way out of my knowledge area..which is electronics...and quickly lost me.
Is there any truth to this path or is it another way for insecticide makers to push their wares?
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Thursday January 18 2018, @06:19PM (2 children)
D'oh, ninja'ed! Good summary, easier to read than mine (and shorter).
I found it interesting that they went to the trouble of removing the Lithium salt from the gene therapy, determined that gene therapy did have an effect (60% mite mortality over 60 days), and decided to stop researching it because the lithium was so much more effective :)
If there is an award for following in Alexander Fleming's footsteps [britannica.com] these guys certainly deserve one.
As an aside, when did colony collapse disorder start being blamed on mite infestations rather than pesticides?
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Thursday January 18 2018, @06:34PM
What I've always derived from what I read is that it was due to a confluence of factors. One is that sub-critical levels of pesticides still left the bees and the colonies weaker that they were previously, so they were more subject to other insults, including various infections and temperature changes. The mites would count as a part of "various infections" this article seems to be asserting that they (and the viruses they carry) are the most significant one.
It's also true, however, the the neonicotinoid pesticides seem to be strongly implicated.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18 2018, @08:21PM
this has always been the argument of the pesticide makers. never mind that they poison the whole food chain and kill everything. what are you gonna do? *not* steal from social security and pay people who live too long?