Editing Honey bee (section)

===Colony collapse disorder===
{{Main|Colony collapse disorder}}

Primarily in places where western honey bees were imported by humans, periodic collapses in western honey bee populations have occurred at least since the late 19th century.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.megabeepestcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Colony-Collapse-Disorder-The-Vanishing-Honeybee-Apis-Mellifera.pdf|title=Colony Collapse Disorder: The Vanishing Honeybee (Apis Mellifera)|date=12 March 2011|work=CU Scholar|access-date=26 March 2024|language=en-US}}</ref>

However, as humans continued to manipulate the western honey bee and deliberately transferred them on a global scale, diseases simultaneously spread and harmed managed colonies. Colony losses have occurred periodically throughout history. Fungus, mites, and starvation have all been thought to be the cause of the deaths. Limited occurrences resembling CCD were documented as early as 1869.<ref>{{cite news|author1=Robyn M. Underwood |author2=Dennis van Engelsdorp |title = Colony Collapse Disorder: Have We Seen This Before?|url=http://ento.psu.edu/pollinators/publications/underwood | publisher = The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology|access-date = 2010-05-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1087?page=1|title=Mystery of the dying bees|author=Benjamin Lester|work=[[Cosmos (Australian magazine)|Cosmos]] |date=7 March 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080324131409/http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1087?page=1|archive-date=24 March 2008}}</ref> Colony collapses were called "May Disease" in Colorado in 1891 and 1896.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Colony Collapse Disorder: A Descriptive Study|author=Dennis vanEngelsdorp|author2= Jay D. Evans|author3=Claude Saegerman|author4=Chris Mullin|author5=Eric Haubruge|author6=Bach Kim Nguyen|author7=Maryann Frazier|author8=Jim Frazier|author9=Diana Cox-Foster|author10=Yanping Chen|author11=Robyn Underwood|author12=David R. Tarpy|author13=Jeffery S. Pettis|url=https://nature.berkeley.edu/garbelottoat/wp-content/uploads/vanengelsdorp2009.pdf|journal=PLOS ONE|date=August 2009 | volume=4 | issue=8|pages=e6481 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0006481 |doi-access=free |pmid=19649264 |pmc=2715894 |bibcode=2009PLoSO...4.6481V }}</ref>

Starting in the first decade of the 21st century, abnormally high die-offs (30–70% of hives) of western honey bee colonies have occurred in North America. This has been dubbed "colony collapse disorder" (CCD) and was at first unexplained.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bryony|first1=Bonning|title=Honey Bee Disease Overview|journal=Journal of Invertebrate Pathology|date=11 November 2009|volume=103|pages=S2-4|doi=10.1016/j.jip.2009.07.015 |pmid=19909974}}</ref> It seems to be caused by a combination of factors rather than a single [[pathogen]] or [[poison]], possibly including [[neonicotinoid]] pesticides<ref>{{cite news|last1=McDonald-Gibson|first1=Charlotte|title='Victory for bees' as European Union bans neonicotinoid pesticides blamed for destroying bee population|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/victory-for-bees-as-european-union-bans-neonicotinoid-pesticides-blamed-for-destroying-bee-population-8595408.html|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=2 July 2014}}</ref> or [[Israeli acute paralysis virus]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Colony Collapse Disorder |url=http://www.beeologics.com/colony-health/colony-collapse-disorder/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130206024748/http://www.beeologics.com/colony-health/colony-collapse-disorder/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 February 2013 |website=Beeologics |access-date=23 October 2014 }}</ref>

A survey by the [[University of Maryland]] and [[Auburn University]] published in 2023 found the number of United States honeybee colonies "remained relatively stable" although 48% of colonies were lost in the year that ended April 1, 2023, with a 12-year average annual mortality rate of 39.6%. The previous year (2021-2022) the loss was 39% and the 2020-2021 loss was 50.8%. Beekeepers told the surveying scientists that a 21% loss over the winter is acceptable and more than three-fifths of beekeepers surveyed said their losses were higher than that in 2022-2023.<ref name="PBS News-2023"/>