USDA Announces Colony Collapse Disorder Research Action Plan

Gale Buchanan, USDA under secretary for Research Education and Economics has announced that USDA researchers have finalized an action plan for dealing with colony collapse disorder (CCD) of honey bees.

"There were enough honey bees to provide pollination for U.S. agriculture this year, but beekeepers could face a serious problem next year and beyond," Buchanan said. "This action plan provides a coordinated framework to ensure that all of the research that needs to be done is covered in order to get to the bottom of the CCD problem."

The action plan coordinates the federal strategy in response to CCD. It addresses four main components:

Survey and data collection needs;
Analysis of samples to determine the prevalence of various pests and pathogens, exposure to pesticides, or other unusual factors;
Controlled experiments to carefully analyze the potential causes of CCD;
Developing new methods to improve the general health of bees to reduce their susceptibility to CCD and other disorders.

Four possible causes for CCD are identified in the plan: new or reemerging pathogens, new bee pests or parasites, environmental and/or nutritional stress, or pesticides. Research will focus on determining which of these factors are contributing causes of CCD, either individually or in combination.

For complete details, see the associated USDA story posted online.