I've never seen a press article that was entirely accurate, unless the  
reporter sent a copy to us for review before publication - which very few  do, many 
tell us they would be fired for releasing a draft prior to  publication.
 
As per overblown statements in the LAT article, "The puzzling phenomenon,  
known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, has been reported in 35 states, five  
Canadian provinces and several European countries."   
 
That statement is inaccurate, but not in the ways indicated on  Bee-L.

We at Bee Alert have received completed surveys from 639 beekeepers in  43 
states, and yes, those beekeepers HAVE REPORTED CCD in 35 states and 5  
provinces, at some time OVER the last 16 months.  
 
Some of these 'state' reports are questionable - too few surveys indicating  
CCD to be certain, so we have about a half dozen states and three  provinces 
that we consider questionable.  
 
We have good reason to believe that CCD has been in at least 27 states and  
two provinces - although Canadian reports have NOT been confirmed by inspectors 
 or bee researchers.
 
There are reports of bee losses in several European countries, Taiwan, and  
some S. American countries, but no one knows whether these are CCD, pesticide,  
or a pathogen like N. cerana -- there's been no common sampling,  
investigation - so all we know is that the U.S. isn't the only country  having trouble 
keeping bees in good health - but whether its CCD, no one  knows.   I've been in 
S. America in one of the countries reporting bee  losses, and their problem 
was dwindling, which in part seems to be nutritional -  the symptoms were not a 
sudden collapse.
 
As per comments on Bee-L  about dramatic  differences between the irradiated, 
acetic acid, untreated hives  -- the report posted recently showed some, but 
not a  dramatic difference among the treatments in terms of frames of  bees, 
brood, etc. -- I pulled the original data chart for a talk this  weekend - the 
data doesn't show much difference, except for the number  of open brood cells 
in untreated CCD equipment.  There are some  trends.  I'll be interested in 
seeing how these colonies progress, and  a statistical analysis of the results.  
Perhaps looking in the hives  provides a different perspective, but it 
doesn't seem to be demonstrated by the  data table - at least not to the degree 
suggested by the posts on Bee-L.   Curious.
 
Jerry
 





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