Experts: Bee Illness Could Hurt Agriculture
By: Jamie Corsi
A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of bees across the U.S. Kim Flottum, chairman of the Eastern Apicultural Society and editor of Bee Culture magazine, and Maryann Frazier, professor in the department of entomology at Penn State University, joined "Street Signs" Monday to talk about what’s killing America’s bees -- and the potential impact on American farmers.
Flottum believes there are many causes for the illness -- but finally, “bee sickness causes comes down to stress,” said Flottum. Some commercial beekeepers have lost 50% to 90% of their colonies.
Frazier lists stresses and pathogens at the tope of the list of potential causes. “Agriculture cannot depend on wild bees for pollination,” said Frazier. There are 2.5 million commercial beehives in the U.S. -- and bee-pollinated crops are worth nearly $14.6 billion dollars.
