Michigan Correspondent

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Scientists have discovered a virus that they say is strongly linked to colony collapse disorder (CCD) in bees. Dubbed Israel Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), the virus was found in 95 percent of the hives under study that had been stricken with CCD, but in almost no healthy ones.

“It’s strongly implicated as a causal factor in the occurrence of CCD,” said Mary Purcell-Miramontes, national program leader for arthropod and nematode biology at the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. “This will generate a lot more research to see if these findings can be repeated.”

The study’s findings were published in the Sept. 6 issue of Science online. The findings will soon be in the hard copy of the magazine. W. Ian Lipkin, a professor in the department of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, led the investigation. According to the researchers, Australia may be from where the IAPV-infected bees came.

The bees were brought into the United States as pollinators to help with the almond crop in California.

Although Purcell-Miramontes and other experts find the study compelling, there are skeptics. Among them is Jerry Bromenshenk, a researcher at the University of Montana and CEO of Bee Alert Technology, Inc. in Missoula, Mont. He has been doing research with the U.S. Army on CCD since last December.

“Our data does not show a common denominator,” Bromenshenk said. “It’s very early in terms of the problem. There may be some connection, but we don’t know yet. Sometimes you have different tools and come up with different conclusions.”Lipkin is adamant, however, that the study is significant. “We are certain the virus has never been reported in the U.S. before,“ Lipkin said. “We are certain that it is the cause of serious bee illness in Israel. We are certain that it is highly associated with CCD. We are not certain that it causes CCD. Proof of causation will require several months of additional work.

“Nonetheless, it would have been irresponsible to sit on this information, given that it is a candidate for causing CCD and we have simple, inexpensive, rapid tests for the virus.”

According to Purcell-Miramontes, it’s essential that the study’s findings be duplicated by other scientists. Otherwise, she said the findings might be spurious.