A rapidly mutating virus
has leaped from plants to honeybees, where it is reproducing and contributing
to the collapse of colonies vital to the multibillion-dollar agricultural
industry, according to a new study.
Reporter Geoffrey Mohan of the Los Angeles Times
reports that “tobacco ringspot virus, a pollen-borne pathogen that causes
blight in soy crops, was found during routine screening of commercial honeybees
at a U.S.
Department of Agriculture laboratory, where further study revealed
the RNA virus was replicating inside its Apis mellifera hosts and
spreading to mites that travel from bee to bee, according to the study
published online Tuesday in the journal mBio.”
The discovery is the first report of honeybees
becoming infected by a pollen-born RNA virus that spread systematically through
the bees and hives. Traces of the virus were detected in every part of the bee
examined, except its eyes, according to the study.
The widespread use of neonicotinoid
seed treatments has been blamed for the death of a high percentage of honeybees
in corn-producing areas of Ontario and across the United States.
The California discovery underlines the point
that many farmers have been making that neonicotinoid seed treatments are far
from the sole factor in the death of honeybees.
