The Colony Collapse Disorder, or simply put CCD, is a disorder in bee colonies in which the most adult honeybees are abandoning a hive and disappearing, leaving the queen and some younger bees.

Dead adult bees aren't found near the hive, they are just gone.

The Colony Collapse Disorder was discovered late last year after beekeepers from 35 US stateshave reported losses of up to 80 percent of their colonies. About a quarter of beekeeping operations were affected by CCD during the 2006-2007 winter alone. While colony losses are not unexpected during winter weather, the magnitude of loss suffered by some beekeepers was highly unusual.

The US  Department of Agriculture said that the disease is a very serious issue and it may cause somewhere around $75 billion of economic damage if left unchecked.

Also CCD may affect pollination which is a critical element in agriculture, as honey bees pollinate more than 130 crops in the United States and add $15 billion in crop value annually.

For example, in California, the almond crop alone uses 1.3 million colonies of bees, approximately one half of all honey bees in the United States, and this need is projected to grow to 1.5 million colonies by 2010,, USDA said.

The new research, which is based on a comparison of healthy and unhealthy bee colonies, points to a virus.
“Our extensive study suggests that the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) may be a potential cause of Colony Collapse Disorder,” said W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. “Our next step is to ascertain whether this virus, alone or in concert with other factors such as microbes, toxins and stressors, can induce CCD in healthy bees,” he added.

In order to find CCD’s possible cause, the researchers used a a rapid genome sequencing technique called pyrosequencing to catalogue the entire variety of microorganisms that honey bees harbor. After that, they compared the sequences obtained in those held in public database in order to identify symbiotic and pathogenic bacteria, fungi and viruses found in both healthy and CCD-afflicted colonies.

In another test, they compared their samples with those collected over three years across the United States from normal and CCD-affected hives.

After these operations, they concluded that the molecular signs of Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus appeared to be associated with CCD. But they said further analysis is needed in order to determine if IAPV can induce CCD in healthy bees.   

"The next step is to ascertain whether IAPV, alone or in concert with other factors, can induce CCD [colony collapse disorder] in healthy bees," said Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. As the researchers noted, IAPV is rarely found in healthy hives.

The experts from the US Department of Agriculture noted that Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus is not the only factor responsible for CCD.

“This research gives us a very good lead to follow, but we do not believe IAPV is acting alone,” said coauthor Jeffery S. Pettis, research leader of the Bee Research Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture. “Other stressors to the colony are likely involved,” he said

Earlier this year U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Gale Buchanan announced that USDA researchers have finalized a Research Action Plan plan for dealing with colony collapse disorder (CCD) of honey bees.

According to the USDA’s report there are four possible causes for CCD: new or reemerging pathogens, new bee pests or parasites, environmental and/or nutritional stress, or pesticides.

Also USDA said that an initial budget for implementation of the Research Action Plan would require $250,000, mostly for testing of bee samples collected.

Other experts have also said that IAPV is not the only factor responsible. “This may be a piece or a couple of pieces of the puzzle, but I certainly don't think it is the whole thing," said Jerry Hayes, chief of the apiary section of the Florida department of agriculture, quoted by AP.

The imports of bee colonies from Australia made to bolster US bee population were considered as a potential source of the virus. Until 2004 importing bees was a practice that had been banned by the Honeybee Act of 1922, but after U.S. bees were devastated by the varroa mite, the ban was lifted. According to Pettis, U.S. officials are discussing to reinstate the ban.

In response, the Australian scientists rejected the idea that the Australian bees may carry the cause of CCD and they pointed out that there are no reported cases of CCD in Australia.