To download a printable version (PDF) of the IBRA leaflet about this problem, go to www.ibra.org.uk , click on "leaflets" and choose the fourth which has the title "What's Happening to Our Bees?"
IBRA stands for "International Bee Research Association"

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is not a single disease or a well understood problem. The name has been given to make the decline in honey bee colonies and in particular the sudden death of colonies easier to discuss.

There is a number of possible causes and contributing factors to this problem and nobody yet knows which is the prime cause or which is the most important.

Among possible contributing factors are:-

• stress caused by moving colonies long distances (particularly in North America)
• the effects of Varroa mite parasitism
• various virus diseases, possibly transmitted by Varroa.
• Nosema, a disease of the bee's digestive system, becoming commoner and more destructive.
• Cumulative effects of chemical used in agricullture such as pesticides and fungicides.
• shortening of the life span of overwintering bees, due to virus infections, thus leading to collapse in the spring when there are not enough workers left to tend the new brood.
• some effect, cause unknown, interfering with the navigation abilities of bees, so that they fail to return to their hive when they have been out foraging for food.
• beekeepers use of pharmaceutical chemicals to control bee diseases
• putting the blame for bad managment onto some external cause.

Some guesses that are almost certainly wrong but sell newspapers include:-

• mobile phone radio emissions
• effects of overhead power lines
• genetically modified farm crops

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