Saskatchewan beekeepers are using their remoteness from other producers to buy time in solving the puzzle of colony collapse disorder (CCD), which has devastated bee operations in the United States.
John Gruszka, provincial apiculturalist with the Saskatchewan agriculture ministry, said varroa and tracheal mites are believed to contribute to the disorder, which can wipe out a colony within three years. The problem is most pronounced at the end of winter.
He said varroa mites arrived from Europe almost 20 years ago.
“There used to be chemical controls but they are now resistant to them.”
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Saskatchewan is behind the infestation curve compared to other places in North America because bees are generally found in areas well away from provincial and state borders, which create a kind of quarantine.
Control products are working fairly well in the province, Gruszka said.
“We won’t keep it out forever but at least if we could delay it, we could buy time.”
Albert Robertson, a Saskatoon area research scientist, has spent the last four years overseeing the Saskatraz Breeding Program, which selects for honeybees that show tolerance to varroa and tracheal mites and require few chemical controls while also offering good honey production.
Robertson said there may be different possible causes of CCD, but thinks varroa and tracheal mites are among the most likely suspects.
“It’s a difficult problem to solve,” said the beekeeper and farmer who has worked with bees for 33 years.
In his studies, bees produced three good crops of honey without the use of chemical miticides before the colonies collapsed, showing symptoms consistent with CCD.
Robertson believes CCD may be induced by stresses that cause the expression of a virus already present in the honeybees’ genomes.
His goal is to breed bees that will be able to cope for a longer period of time.
Gruszka said the development of new chemicals to attack the mites causing the collapse will help but not solve the problem. While mites develop a resistance to pesticides aimed at controlling them, these chemicals can be effective again if not used for five years.
The federal government announced in 2007 it would provide $366,729 over three years to help finance continued research into CCD.
The Saskatraz project is supported by the province’s agriculture development fund and the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association.
Sale of breeding stock to beekeepers has also raised around $20,000 a year. In 2006, the project began releasing about six lines a year to provincial breeders, who in turn selected their best lines and put them back into Saskatraz.
“If we have stock in the hives to control 25 percent on their own, it should be able to maintain productivity,” Gruszka said.
The Saskatraz project, named after the famous island prison Alcatraz, was initiated in 2004 and brought together bees and germplasm from a wide variety of locations, including the Prairies, the United States, Germany and Russia.
Recent U.S. Department of Agriculture research found colonies reported about a 50 percent loss when treated with acetic acid, put on honeycomb or left untreated.
Colonies that had been irradiated showed a 70 percent survival rate, pointing to a relationship between a living organism and CCD.
Researchers concluded CCD is likely an interaction of pesticides, Nosema, virus, nutrition and mites, although they were unclear about what role each one plays.
It has been estimated that up to 30 percent of the human food supply is directly or indirectly dependent on pollination by honeybees.
In the U.S., crops worth $15 billion a year depend directly on pollination by bees, including citrus fruit, stone fruit, almonds, forage crops, some oilseed crops and some vegetables.
