Although most of humanity relies upon foods that do not require animal pollination, production of 39 of the world's 57 most important monoecious crops still benefits from this ecosystem service . Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) are undoubtedly the most valuable pollinators in agriculture because they can be easily maintained and transported to pollinator-dependent crops. Yet, despite an almost 50% increase in world honey bee stocks over the last century, beekeepers have not kept cope with the >300% increase in pollinator-dependent crops . This has led to great uncertainty surrounding the recent large-scale die-offs of honey bees around the world, and has sparked enormous interest from both scientists and the general public.

Although sharp regional declines in honey bee populations have occurred in the past, such as the so-called unexplainable “Isle of Wight” disease in the early 1900s , the magnitude and velocity of these recent declines are likely unprecedented.

What is the phenomenon of CCD

Often we hear from social media, beekeeping pages, researches and scientific websites, the term so-called “Colony Collapse Disorder” or CCD, which is characterized by the rapid disappearance of adult bees from colonies containing brood and food stores with no significant damage of parasitic Varroa destructor mites or Nosema microsporidians .

In the second part of 2006, several prominent US commercial beekeepers reported an odd decline in worker populations of honey bee colonies. This phenomenon was termed colony collapse disorder (CCD), that describe the rapid loss of female workers in honey bee colonies. From tens of thousands of individuals to several hundred or fewer over a time in one to several weeks. Unlike many colony loss events, those facing CCD had an active queen present, healthy developing (larval and pupal) bees, and no overt signs of disease caused by parasitic mites (Varroa destructor or Acarapis woodii) or microbes, what might be the reason then??.

Reasons behind CCD phenomenon and solutions

In other cases, however, these morbidities are genuinely unexplainable, including those attributed to CCD sensu stricto 6. In recent winters, colony mortality in Europe has averaged ∼20% (ranging from 1.8 to 53% among countries), with starvation and parasites believed to be the main contributors (“Proceedings of the 4th COLOSS Conference, Zagreb, Croatia, 3-4 March 2009”, available at http://www.coloss.org/publications). Colony mortality during the 2006/2007, 2007/2008, and 2008/2009 winters in the US, the only country where CCD has been documented, was 32% 8, 36% 9, and 29% 10, respectively. During the winter of 2008/2009, ∼10% of the 2.3 million managed honey bee colonies in the US died with “CCD-like symptoms”, and US beekeepers self-diagnosed CCD as only the 8th most important contributor to colony mortality, behind starvation, queen-related issues, and parasites 10. The point is, honey bees die from many things They work singly or in combination and there is a need to decipher the puzzle. Electromagnetic radiation resulting from communication towers and the Internet is one of the important reasons that affected the behavior of bees in general and even affected the health and activity of males, and it may be one of the causes of the phenomenon of CCD . The infection of colonies with the parasite Varroa and Nosemia, in addition to the direct damage to these two causes, but it affects the peptides of the mixed immunity of bees against microbes, which leads to a decrease in immunity in the colonies and this makes them vulnerable to sudden death. Neonicotinoids, the most widely used systemic insecticides in the world, have been shown to be one of the risk factors to colony collapse disorder (CCD). It may cause CCD because it leads to damage to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Although no individual symptoms appeared on spring workers, the cumulative effect of these pesticides appeared on workers in winter because of their long life, and this may explain the phenomenon of colony collapse in Winter or early spring more than other seasons.

From the above, the importance of the CCD phenomenon and the extent of its seriousness to bee colonies has occurred in the last three years, a significant loss in the number of honey bee colonies in the Arab world, especially in Morocco and Egypt, with high rates reaching 50% in some apiaries amid amazement of the breeders, and a decrease in the number of bee colonies in Iraq this year and last year. Many beekeepers complained about the problem of losing bees, despite their proof that the colonies were good during the periodic inspection, but they were found completely empty or almost empty in the subsequent detection, and the difference in time may not exceed one or two weeks only. According to analysis, is the result of the overlap of more than one causative factor and thus the occurrence of the phenomenon of CCD, and the matter requires a serious pause and joint cooperation between the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture to reduce the repercussions of this phenomenon, paying attention to the safety of the environment and the agricultural sector, educating farmers about the correct way of using pesticides, conducting training courses for beekeepers and introducing them to the right way for beekeeping management according to modern methods and in an integrated management manner to reduce the phenomenon of CCD.