Healthy Bee, Sick Bee by Phil Lester

Author:Phil Lester
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Victoria University Press
Published: 2020-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Beekeepers on the Coromandel Peninsula lost up to 95% of their colonies in the spring of 2014. This is one of the apiary sites that has since recovered, with beekeeper and scientist Oksana Borowik with daughter Kate Davies, keeping a careful eye on their bees. Photo: Phil Lester

In this chapter I’ll talk about some key trypanosome and fungal pathogens or parasites. I’ll introduce these species and talk about how they have influenced bee populations. Trypanosome parasites in particular have been linked with dramatically declining wild bee populations around the globe. Nosema ceranae has been linked with CCD in North America and countries including Spain. I’ll finish by discussing how these and other pathogens and parasites can team up together to affect bee mortality.

Much of the evidence for the global, ongoing and devastating impact of trypanosome and Nosema pathogens comes from bumble bees. As we will see, these pathogens have been identified as one of 15 ‘emerging issues likely to affect global biological diversity, the environment, and conservation efforts in the future’, as concluded in a 2017 ‘horizon scan’ by an international team.2 So for the next few pages we will drift away from honey bees, as I think that their large, furry relatives can deepen our understanding of the global effects and management of these pathogens.

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