Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006. Colony collapse is economically significant because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees.
The cause or causes of the syndrome are not yet fully understood, although many authorities attribute the problem to biotic factors such as Varroa mites and insect diseases. Other proposed causes include environmental change-related stresses, malnutrition and pesticides (e.g.. neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid), migratory beekeeping, cell phone radiation and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics. It has also been suggested that it may be due to a combination of many factors and that no single factor is the cause.
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