Category: deformed wing virus

Hypotheses to explain honeybee colony collapse disorder, or CCD, are available by the fistful. But the latest, from UK researchers laboring in the tropical Hawaiian sun, is in the journal Science so it gets substantial coverage.

The news is that the researchers, led by a Univ. of Sheffield author along with others from England and the Univ. of Hawaii-Manoa plus cooperating  Hawaiian beekeepers, report a strong correlation between a well-known mite called varroa that can infest the bees and a virus that can deform bees' wings with fatal result. The virus appear to become unusually abundant and virulent in the presence of the mites. Such relationship has been suspected, but the news study had the advantage in Hawaii...