Death/Failure, Colony

Text from LaLone et al. (2017) Weight of evidence evaluation of a network of adverse outcome pathways linking activaiton of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in honey bees to colony death. Science of the Total Environment 584-585, 751-775:

"Colony death/failure is defined as demise of a functional colony. Dramatic losses in the number of managed honey bee colonies have been reported across the globe (Potts et al., 2010) and efforts have been undertaken to survey and identify trends in losses over time, particularly in the US and European Union. Most recent survey results collected in the US have shown that managed honey bee colony losses are significantly higher than those deemed acceptable by beekeepers (Seitz et al., 2015). From surveying commercial (>300 colonies), sideline (25–300 colonies), and small scale <25 colonies) beekeepers, average annual colony losses (both summer and winter losses) per operation in the US during 2014–2015 were 49%, compared to 18.7% that has been identified by beekeepers as an acceptable loss rate (Seitz et al., 2015). Starvation, poor over-winter survival, and weak colonies, were among the most common perceived causes of loss reported by bee keepers (Seitz et al., 2015). Commercial beekeepers, managing thousands of colonies, self-reported colony collapse disorder and pesticides as third and fourth leading reasons for colony loss, respectively (Seitz et al., 2015)."

LaLone, C.A., Villeneuve, D.L., Wu-Smart, J., Milsk, R.Y., Sappington, K., Garber, K.V., Housenger, J. and Ankley, G.T., 2017. Weight of evidence evaluation of a network of adverse outcome pathways linking activation of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in honey bees to colony death. STOTEN. 584-585, 751-775.

Potts, S.G., Biesmeijer, J.C., Kremen, C., Neumann, P., Schweiger, O., Kunin, W.E., 2010. Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers. Trends Ecol. Evol. 25 (6), 345–353.

Seitz, N., Traynor, K.S., Steinhauer, N., Rennich, K., Wilson, M.E., Ellis, D., Rose, R., Tarpy, D.R., Sagili, R.R., Caron, D.M., Delaplane, K.S., Rangel, J., Lee, K., Baylis, K., Wilkes, J.T., Skinner, J.A., Pettis, J.S., vanEngelsdorp, D., 2015. A national survey of managed honey bee 2014–2015 annual colony losses in the USA. J. Apic. Res. 54 (4), 1–12.