Honey Bee Extinction?

Over the generations species of bee have become extinct, but our current selection of honey bees are not in any serve danger of becoming extinct. Monitoring numbers plays a large part in gauging this and it is difficult to be sure.

For example it was thought that the Black Honey Bee that is native to the UK and Eastern Central Europe had died out in all parts accept the far reaches of Scotland but it has been found recently in parts of Wales and England.

There are billions of Honey Bees in the world and from that point of view Bees are not endangered. But they are under threat. There have been mass deaths of bees all over the world and it has been very difficult to establish what has caused this and if it continues then Bees will become endangered.

It has been estimated that millions of bees have died in the last decade and scientists are unsure of the exact cause. There is no doubt that a number of factors have contributed to their slow decline. This includes pesticides which have been proven to affect their ability to navigate back to the nest, new forms of pests and disease which have targeted curtain species of bee and the reduced diversity of planets which has been found to reduce the immune system of the bee as they are exposed to few strains of pollen.

A condition called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been cited as one of the main factors and results in all the workers to just die. This is still a mystery as to why this happens as there are no obvious outward indicators of any problems such as disease or parasites. Scientists are continuing their research, with one main avenue being the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus which is believed to be associated with CCD.