What is COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER?

Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD) is a little-understood phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or Western honey bee colony abruptly disappear.
CCD was originally found in Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006.[1] European beekeepers observed a similar phenomenon in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain[2], and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree.[3] Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.[4]
The cause (or causes) of the syndrome is not yet well understood. Theories include environmental change-related stresses,[5] malnutrition, pathogens (i.e., disease[6] including Israeli acute paralysis virus)[7][8]), mites, pesticides such as neonicotinoids or imidacloprid, radiation from cellular phones or other man-made devices,[9] and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics such as transgenic maize.[10] That the disappearances have almost exclusively been reported from a subset of the commercial beekeepers in affected areas (i.e., not feral colonies or organic beekeepers), suggests to some that beekeeping practices can be a primary factor.[11][12]
From 1971 through 2006, there was a dramatic reduction in the number of feral (wild) honeybees in the US (now almost absent;[13]) and a significant, though somewhat gradual decline in the number of colonies maintained by beekeepers. This decline includes the cumulative losses from all factors such as urbanization, pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and commercial beekeepers retiring and going out of business. However, late in the year 2006 and in early 2007 the rate of attrition was alleged to have reached new proportions, and the term "Colony Collapse Disorder" was proposed to describe this sudden rash of disappearances.[1]
Limited occurrences resembling CCD have been documented as early as 1896,[6][14] and this set of symptoms has in the past several decades been given many different names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease[15]. Most recently, a similar phenomenon in the winter of 2004/2005 occurred, and was attributed to Varroa mites (the "Vampire Mite" scare), though this was never ultimately confirmed. In none of the past appearances of this syndrome has anyone been able to determine its cause(s). Upon recognition that the syndrome does not seem to be seasonally-restricted, and that it may not be a "disease" in the standard sense—that there may not be a specific causative agent—the syndrome was renamed.[16]
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