Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain have all been effected by CCD.
Show me those facts. I have my own facts and CCD has not been found in Europe, and not even in Canada.
European Countries have organized its own hive losses research and what you say, it is not from this globe.
Sugarbush. You have vivid imagination in your many statements.
SCIENTIFIC REPORT submitted to EFSA
Bee Mortality and Bee Surveillance in Europe1
Prepared by
Pascal Hendrikx – AFSSA – France
Marie-Pierre Chauzat – AFSSA – France
Marion Debin – AFSSA – France
Peter Neuman – ALP – Switzerland
Ingemar Fries – SLU – Sweden
Wolfgang Ritter – CVUA Freiburg – Germany
Mike Brown – Fera – United Kingdom
Franco Mutinelli – IZSVE – Italy
Yves Le Conte – INRA – France
Ales Gregorc – KIS – Slovenia
1 CFP/EFSA/AMU
/2008/02. Accepted for Publication on 03 December 2009
Bee Mortality and Bee Surveillance in Europe
2
The present document has been produced and adopted by the bodies identified above as author(s). In accordance with
Article 36 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, this task has been carried out exclusively by the author(s) in the context of a grant
agreement between the European Food Safety Authority and the author(s). The present document is published complying
with the transparency principle to which the European Food Safety Authority is subject. It may not be considered as an output
adopted by EFSA. EFSA reserves its rights, view and position as regards the issues addressed and the conclusions reached
in the present document, without prejudice to the rights of the authors.
Abstract
The bee surveillance project sought information on both the prevalence of honey bee colony losses,
and the surveillance systems found in 27 European countries. Through a standardized questionnaire,
data was obtained from 24 countries, relating to 25 systems. Each of the surveillance systems
collecting these data was evaluated. In addition, a thorough literature search of the existing
databases, as well as relevant grey literature about causes of colony losses was completed, and the
literature evaluated.
The main conclusions from project activities can be summarized as follows:
• General weakness of most of the surveillance systems in the 24 countries investigated;
• Lack of representative data at country level and comparable data at EU level for colony
losses;
• General lack of standardisation and harmonisation at EU level (systems, case definitions and
data collected);
• Consensus of the scientific community about the multifactorial origin of colony losses in
Europe and in the United States and insufficient knowledge of causative and risk factors for
colony losses.
The project makes recommendations, in the following areas:
• Establishment of a sustainable European network for coordination and follow-up of
surveillance on colony losses to underpin monitoring programmes;
• Strengthen standardization at European level by harmonization of surveillance systems, data
collected and by developing common performance indicators.
• Build on the examples of best practice found in existing surveillance systems for
communicable and notifiable diseases already present in some countries;.
• Undertake specific studies that build on the existing work in progress to improve the
knowledge and understanding of factors that affect bee health (for example stress caused by
pathogens, pesticides, environmental and technological factors and their interactions) using
appropriate epidemiological studies (case control and longitudinal studies).
• The set up of the coordination team at European level. This is a crucial issue and the
coordination team should be organized in such a way so as to ensure its sustainability
.
