Yet more "reporting" on CCD that lacks basic fact checking.

I'm surprised at Pro-MED, as they tend to get the story
straight, or at least refrain from including wild 
speculation in their reports on diseases.

Perhaps PRO-Med will issue a retraction and follow up with 
the many outlets who repeated this misinformation as if 
it were "fact" or "news".

After reporting on the German incident, which was covered in
much more detail here on Bee-L here:
http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0807b&L=bee-l&T=0&P=9898


The report makes the error of linking unrelated events by making
them part of a continuous storyline:

> a group of beekeepers from North Dakota... is taking Bayer CropScience 
> to court after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in 1995, during 
> a period when oilseed rape in the area was treated with imidacloprid. 

A true statement. 
Admire (imidacloprid) was sprayed on crops, bees foraged on those crops, 
and pesticide kills resulted.  Fairly straightforward.  The beekeepers
are suing everyone they can, including the maker of the pesticide.

> A third of honeybees were killed by what has since been dubbed colony 
> collapse disorder.

Misleading in the extreme.  The placement of the statement gives the
impression that imidacloprid pesticide kills have "since been dubbed
colony collapse disorder".  The actual evidence found to date from 
sample analysis shows exactly the opposite, that pesticides have 
nothing at all to do with CCD.

> Imidacloprid is Bayer's best-selling pesticide sold under the name 
> Gaucho in France, but has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers
> ...when a third of French honeybees died following its widespread use;

And high losses have continued in France even after the ban of the
pesticide, illustrating neatly that the original accusations were
misplaced.

> the ban on its use in sweetcorn was imposed 5 years later. A few months 
> ago, the company's application for clothianidin was rejected by 
> French authorities.

Yet again, placement of the statements about a pesticide tends to
give the impression that pesticides have something to do with a
disease of honeybees, one clearly caused by a collection of pathogens
that are known to kill otherwise healthy bees even in lab conditions.

> Professor Joe Cummins had warned specifically against this class 
> of new pesticides (Requiem for the Honeybee)...

I think Peter Borst said it best here:
http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0806D&L=BEE-L&P=R2472&D=0&H
=0&I=-3&O=T&T=0

"Joe Cummins is not a "key bee expert", and he is using the 
honey bee's problems to advance his agenda"

But here's the punchline you've all been waiting for - 
the author of the article has extensive prior experience 
with the putting of one's foot in one's mouth.
Kid you not, this is what Pro-MED says about her:

MARY MARSHALL
European Union funded Foot & Mouth 
Disease and Classical Swine Fever 
Coordination Action participant - UK


But the level of misinformation being spread by those who wish
to leverage the plight of honey bees for their own agenda is
starting to overwhelm the factual information.  Even Bee-L is
not immune, as illustrated by this quote made about the book
"A Spring Without Bees":

> even if there is a lack of science behind the book's claims - 
> banning the use of lawn products would be a great day. 

So, even when there is:

a) No science at all behind certain claims
b) Lots of well-done science to refute the claims

the claims are still thought to be "worthy", even by regular
readers of Bee-L, where we tend to be perhaps too hard on
speculation, fuzzy thinking, and jumping to conclusions.

The problem, of course, is that, just like France, the
US could ban any number of pesticides, but this would not
solve the basic problem of Colony Collapse Disorder, or
the more basic problem of all the OTHER exotic, invasive
pests, pathogens, and parasites of bees that have come to
our shores since the mid-1980s with all the "World Trade"
that has been perpetrated upon us.

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