Applegater
Spring 2011 23
SOMETHING TO CEREBRATE
Are genetically modified organisms killing the bees?
By kaTE morsE, CCH, HmC
Colony
Collapse Disor-
der (CCD) is the
name given to the
annual die-off of 20- to 40 percent of
honeybee colonies in the United States and
Europe. Recent research into the mysteri-
ous phenomenon, which has frightening
consequences for agricultural crops that
depend on bee pollination, blames a spe-
cific viral and fungal duo for CCD: insect
iridescent virus (first found in India 20 years
ago) and Nosema ceranae, a fungal spore
the bees ingest.
The research, conducted by the
University of Montana and Montana State
University, in collaboration with the US
Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological
Center, was published October, 2010, in
a scientific journal online at http://www.
plosone.org . The team discovered these
viral/fungal killers in every colony they
studied. While neither pathogen alone is
lethal, the research suggests they add up to
a one-two punch that definitely kills bees.
Still, questions abound as to why
bees are suddenly such disease-prone
weaklings. The prevailing viewpoint is that
a combination of factors—pathogens, as
well as pollutants, pesticides, global climate
changes, mites, and maybe cell-phone
radiation—are to blame.
David Mendes, the president of the
American Beekeeping Federation, states,
“There might be something that affects
the bees’ immune system in the first place
that then allows these pathogens to infect
them more easily.” (http://gmo-journal.
com) One of the newest “somethings”
under consideration is genetically modified
organisms, or GMOs.
Gmo-journal.com says GMOs
cause CCD when they function as so-
called “terminator seeds.” Terminator
seeds, which give rise to plants that don’t
produce cultivatable seeds (necessitating
that farmers keep purchasing seeds), or
only reproduce with concomitant use of
the producers’ pesticides and fertilizers, are
brutally hard on bees’ digestion. Monsanto
has patented “terminator seeds” for several
varieties of corn.
Www.Globalresearch.com, a Cana-
dian website that puts most of the blame on
Monsanto, says: “The genetic modification
of the plant leads to the concurrent genetic
modification of the flower pollen. When
the flower pollen becomes genetically
modified or sterile, the bees will potentially
go malnourished and die of illness due to
the lack of nutrients and the interruption
of the digestive capacity of what they feed
on through the summer and over the win-
ter hibernation process.”
Gmo-journal.com echoes a much-
held concern that GMOs also lead to
CCD when they incorporate pesticides.
The biggest suspected offender is Bacillus
thuringienses—a.k.a. Bt, a soil bacteria.
More than a decade ago, scientists at
Monsanto figured out how to insert the
DNA of Bt into crop plants, so that every
molecule of the plant contains it. Bt is
insecticidal: bugs eat it and it kills them.
Indiscriminantly, shout the critics. Only a
few targeted species, the agrichemists shout
back. www.Monssanto.com has more than
five pages of press releases praising Bt-
engineered crops, including the statement
that it has “revolutionized corn produc-
tion.” http://www.bt.ucsd.edu/bt_crop.
html has a balanced comparison of risks
and benefits of Bt.
Www.energygrid.com argues that
Bt in the corn pollen “causes an immune
system response in the bees, similar to if
they had eaten the BT directly, and also
causes holes and porosity in the gut. Dur-
ing the summer, the bees have enough pro-
tein to tolerate the immune response” and
(use pollen proteins as neurochemicals for
learning navigation to and from the hive).
However, in winter, when pro-
tein (pollen) is in short supply, things
can change: If a bee’s immune system is
threatened, the protein normally invested
in learning and remembering complex
navigation has gone into immune reac-
tion. Sick bees, therefore, get lost trying to
return to the hive. Nature formalized this
operation to preserve the hive, because it
prevents infected bees from contaminat-
ing the entire hive, but it can get out of
balance. The “Bt-as-immune-devastator”
theory accounts for several characteristics
of CCD, according to energygrid.com:
1. “It was originally called ‘Fall
Dwindle Disease,’ because bee disappear-
ance is almost always worst just as winter
sets in.
2. It explains why the few dead
bees that are found have the same black-
ened and porous guts as bees responding
directly to Bt.
3. It also explains why the global
bee die-off generally followed the spread
of GMO corn, and did not reach Brazil
until just after they let in Monsanto’s
GMO corn.”
More about Bt and GMOs
At www.naturalnews.com, John
McDonald, a beekeeper with a background
in biology, agrees that crops genetically
modified with Bt could play a role in CCD.
“The primary toxin is a protein called
Cry1Ab. In the case of field corn, the
targeted insects are stem and root-borers
and butterfly larvae. Although scientists
assure us that bees are not affected, there
are Bt variants available that target beetles,
flies and mosquitoes, as well as proof that
Cry1Ab is present in beehives. Beekeepers
spray Bt under hive lids to control the wax
moth because the larvae cause messy webs
on the honey. Canadian beekeepers have
noted the disappearance of this moth even
in untreated hives, apparently the result of
bees ingesting Cry1Ab while foraging in
GM canola plants. Bees forage heavily on
corn flowers to obtain pollen for the rearing
of young bees.” McDonald believes it may
be possible that while Cry1Ab isn’t fatal to
young bees, it might suppress immunity
and act as a “slow killer.”
All this attention to what goes on
in a bee’s gut may be just what’s needed.
But there is scant research examining the
GMO/CCD link. A couple of studies
have found enough evidence to support
further research. One study conducted by
Penn State University and published in the
Public Library of Science found “remarkably
high” level of pesticide and other toxicant
contamination that could be from GMOs.
Ac c o rd i n g t o w w w. s p i e g e l .
de.international.com, the electronic ver-
sion of the German newspaper Spiegel,
research conducted at the University of
Jena from 2001 to 2004 examining the ef-
fects of pollen from a Bt-modified corn on
bees found no evidence of a “toxic effect of
Bt corn on healthy honeybee populations.
But when the bees used in the experiments
How much Bt is out
there?
Insect-resistant crops containing
the gene from the soil bacterium Bt
(Bacillus thuringiensis) have been avail-
able for corn and cotton since 1996.
Plantings of Bt corn grew from about 8
percent of U.S. corn acreage in 1997 to
26 percent in 1999…then climbed to 63
percent in 2010. Plantings of Bt cotton
expanded more rapidly, from 15 percent
of U.S. cotton acreage in 1997 to 37
percent in 2001 and 73 percent in 2010.
These figures include adoption of
“stacked” varieties of cotton and corn,
which have both HT (herbicide toler-
ant) and Bt traits. Adoption of stacked
varieties has accelerated. Stacked cotton
reached 58 percent of cotton plantings in
2010. Plantings of stacked corn made up
47 percent of corn acres in 2010.
Adoption of all genetically engi-
neered cotton, taking into account the
acreage with either or both HT and Bt,
reached 93 percent in 2010, versus 93
percent for soybeans (soybeans have only
HT varieties). Adoption of all biotech
corn was 86 percent in 2010.
From USDA Economic Research
Services: www.ers.usda.gov/data/bio-
techcrops/adoption.htm
were infested with a parasite, a significantly
stronger decline in the number of bees oc-
curred among the insects that had been fed
a highly concentrated Bt poison.”
Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, director of
the study, believes “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.”
According to the Spiegel.com,
Kaatz wanted 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.”
Should home gardeners purchase Bt
insecticides, or avoid them until a definitive
answer on the Bt/CCD link comes to light?
Kate Morse • 541-846-1252
Kate Morse is a Certified Classical Homeo-
path in the Applegate at www.southernoregonho-
meopathy.com. In an earlier career, she wrote press
materials about Bacillus thuriensis for Monsanto.