The Decline of the Honeybees in North America Term Paper

The Decline of the Honeybees in North America - Term Paper Example It is characterized by Few or lack of dead bees in the hive; pollen and honey stores in the hive; the presence of live queen with few bees; and loss of adult worker bees among other factors. Historically, the tendency of honey bee colony loss through pathogens, pests, and parasites among other diseases was a common issue in America. It is an issue that the Americans were very familiar with and had its remedy because it was not very critical as the current phenomena of CCD. In fact, research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has attributed this overwinter loss to other unknown factors other than CCD. Nevertheless, some vigorous scientific researchers have related the contemporary CCD in North America with a number of issues. In this case, diet and nutrition, pest and diseases, genetic factors and diversity, pesticides and other chemicals, environmental stress, and bee management are associated with CCD. Therefore, the contemporary research tries to view their effects on bee colony health into detail (Corn, 2014). Genetic diversity has been seen as one of the major issues that scholars have attributed to the current decline in the population of colony honeybees. In this case, some scholars tend to view inbreeding as a possible contributor to the current reduction in the population of the honeybees in North America. These researchers argue that inbreeding, if not properly handled, is one of the factors that may create weak species incapable of resisting even simple diseases.