Germany's Bee Report

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Saturday, April 07, 2007 12:34 PM

[tapa-chemtrails] Germany's Bee Report

 

 

Additional reporting:

One thing is certain: Millions of bees have simply vanished. In most cases,

all that's left in the hives are the doomed offspring. But dead bees are

nowhere to be found -- neither in nor anywhere close to the hives. Diana

Cox-Foster, a member of the CCD Working Group, told The Independent that

researchers were " extremely alarmed, " adding that the crisis " has the

potential to devastate the US beekeeping industry. "

It is particularly worrisome, she said, that the bees' death is accompanied

by a set of symptoms " which does not seem to match anything in the

literature. "

In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known bee

viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most have

disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time and were

infested with fungi -- a sign, experts say, that the insects' immune system

may have collapsed.

The scientists are also surprised that bees and other insects usually leave

the abandoned hives untouched. Nearby bee populations or parasites would

normally raid the honey and pollen stores of colonies that have died for

other reasons, such as excessive winter cold. " This suggests that there is

something toxic in the colony itself which is repelling them, " says

Cox-Foster.

Walter Haefeker, the German beekeeping official, speculates that " besides a

number of other factors, " the fact that genetically modified,

insect-resistant plants are now used in 40 percent of cornfields in the

United States could be playing a role. The figure is much lower in

Germany -- only 0.06 percent -- and most of that occurs in the eastern

states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg. Haefeker recently

sent a researcher at the CCD Working Group some data from a bee study that

he has long felt shows a possible connection between genetic engineering and

diseases in bees.

 

The study in question is a small research project conducted at the

University of Jena from 2001 to 2004. The researchers examined the effects

of pollen from a genetically modified maize variant called " Bt corn " on

bees. A gene from a soil bacterium had been inserted into the corn that

enabled the plant to produce an agent that is toxic to insect pests. The

study concluded that there was no evidence of a " toxic effect of Bt corn on

healthy honeybee populations. " But when, by sheer chance, the bees used in

the experiments were infested with a parasite, something eerie happened.

According to the Jena study, a " significantly stronger decline in the number

of bees " occurred among the insects that had been fed a highly concentrated

Bt poison feed.

According to Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a professor at the University of Halle in

eastern Germany and the director of the study, the bacterial toxin in the

genetically modified corn may have " altered the surface of the bee's

intestines, sufficiently weakening the bees to allow the parasites to gain

entry -- or perhaps it was the other way around. We don't know. "

Of course, the concentration of the toxin was ten times higher in the

experiments than in normal Bt corn pollen. In addition, the bee feed was

administered over a relatively lengthy six-week period.

Kaatz would have preferred to continue studying the phenomenon but lacked

the necessary funding. " Those who have the money are not interested in this

sort of research, " says the professor, " and those who are interested don't

have the money. "