If Bees are Worth $215 Billion, Why Can't We Pay to Study Colony ...

Tag : agricultural hardware
1. Backlog
There are currently just over 4,000 samples waiting to be analyzedfor pathogens and pesticides that have been collected from 8different studies, surveys and volunteered samples sent in bybeekeepers. It’ll cost a total of $250,000 to do this. 2. Pesticides
Researchers still need to conduct toxicity tests of individualpesticides to discover their relationship with CCD, if any, anddetermine the sub-lethal effects of pesticides and selectedcombinations of pesticides on bees and other pollinators. And animportant study is to determine if pesticides, when combined withother problems, like viruses are responsible for, or aid in causingCCD.
Available funding for this activity
So far donations for these tests has been substantial, totalingjust over $400,000, though a part of this comes from that $1.4million grant. Still needed just to conduct these tests is the$155,000 for additional people to actually do the research.
Another factor is that investigating pesticides requires expensiveequipment, highly trained personnel and exacting standards to meetFDA/EPA compliance, and available labs are severely limited. Plus,there’s hardly anywhere that can actually teach grad studentsto do these tests, so that, too has to be set up.
Funding required
Equip an MS facility with the appropriate hardware, software andtoxic substance libraries for reference; salary for a qualified GLPtechnician for 4 years: $1,500,000 3. Pathogens
Pathogens are clearly part of the problem underlying CCD. Increasedpathogen loads are found in colonies undergoing CCD and sufferingcollapse. And viral diseases are not only are infecting the honeybee but also native pollinators. It is critical to learn how thesediseases are impacting the native pollinators and if these andother newly discovered viral diseases are contributing to theoverall decline in native pollinators.
Another essential component is the ability to effectively andefficiently analyze the pathogens present in the large number ofsamples that have been, and will be collected. New detectionmethods are also needed that are faster and more sensitive acrossseveral magnitudes and that can identify known pathogens andparasites.
Key investigations include finding out how do stresses such assub-lethal pesticide exposure affect the disease status of acolony? And what is the impact of honey bee viruses and otherpathogens on native pollinators?
They also need to know how can testing and sampling capacity beincreased to detect bee and pollinator diseases, and what measurescan be taken to decrease the overall disease prevalence in a colonyand increase colony health and strength?
Current Funding
Presently, The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and othershave contributed about $152,000 toward these projects, butresearchers at Penn State conservatively estimate that, forpersonnel and the necessary surveys that need to be taken anadditional $4,055,000 is needed.