Another round-up of online press and research covering the debate on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the name given to an apparent global decline in the pollinating bee population. Comments and link contributions are welcomed – look for the ‘Comments’ link at the base of this post.

Press

Trying to Diagnose the Disappearing Bees (Voice of Sandiego.org)
10 Possible Causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (About.com)
Scientists Untangle Multiple Causes of Bee Colony Disorder (Environment News Service)
Habitat loss and disease are bees’ bane, not pesticides (Farmers Weekly Interactive)
Pesticides blamed for killing bees (Telegraph.co.uk)
Global Honey Bee Population Increasing, Despite Local Losses (ecoworldly.com)

Mysterious decline in bee population creates worry (WorldFocusOnline via YouTube)

General reference

Colony collapse disorder (Wikipedia)
Colony collapse disorder – Possible causes and research (Wikipedia)

Research

Colony Collapse Disorder: A Descriptive Study
(van Engelsdorp et al. plosone.org)
Honeybee colony collapse due to Nosema ceranae in professional apiaries
(Higes et al. Environmental Microbiology Reports, via Wiley InterScience)
Distribution and decline of British bumblebees
(Williams / Natural History Museum UK)

Please find below some recent articles on pesticides and related topics. Do feel free to recommend more articles by selecting “Recommend a page or site” above or access a more comprehensive list of articles by using the Delicious cloud in the right-hand colmumn.

• The Three A’s of Food Security (Sciencebase blog)
• Differing patterns in food price falls (BBC)
• French village goes organic one day a week (3News)
• EU survey reveals poor state of biodiversity (Euractiv)
• EU farm subsidies ‘inconsistent’ with global food security (Euractiv)
• Sweden introduces climate labelling for food (Euractiv)
• World food prices: Whatever happened to the food crisis? (The Economist)
• Agriculture Demand Outpacing Honeybee Increase, Researchers Say (Bloomberg)
• EFSA publishes report on pesticide residues in food (Food Production Daily)
• Forum on the Future of Agriculture goes on the road… (Blogactiv)

Last month, researchers at the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a study that is the first to identify a single cause of the colony collapse disorder that has been killing off bees across the world. Please find below a selection of articles and blog posts on the matter published since then:

• DNA clue to honey bee deaths (BBC)
• Cause of Colony Collapse Disorder Identified? (The Daily Green)
• Scientists discover virus that could explain drop in bee population

(The Times)

• Bee genome gives killer clue to colony collapse disorder (New Scientist)
• Genome Study May Have Solved Bee Colony Collapse Mystery (SustainableBusiness.com)
• Pesticides still suspect for bee problems (Green Chemicals)
• Missing Bees? More Reasons Why and How to Help (Greening Families)
• Disappearing bees are lost in translation

(Not Exactly Rocket Science)

• Bee Genome Study Reveals Cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (Environment News Service)