Bees Are Bouncing Back From Colony Collapse Disorder
August 2, 2017
From: Bloomberg
By Alan Bjerga
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Colony Collapse Disorder losses are down 27% from 2016
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Varroa mite main scourge while beekeepers replenish hives
The number of U.S. honeybees, a critical component to agricultural production, rose in 2017 from a year earlier, and deaths of the insects attributed to a mysterious malady that’s affected hives in North America and Europe declined, according a U.S. Department of Agriculture honeybee health survey released Tuesday.
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In the USDA study, beekeepers who owned at least five colonies, or hives, reported the most losses from the varroa mite, a parasite that lives only in beehives and survives by sucking insect blood. The scourge, present in the U.S. since 1987, was reported in 42 percent of commercial hives between April and June this year, according to the USDA. That’s down from 53 percent in the same period one year earlier.
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