評(píng)論
打印
Science and technology
科學(xué)技術(shù)
Colony collapse disorder
蜂群崩壞癥候群
Bee off
蜂群崩壞
A possible explanation of why beehives sometimes vanish
有可能解釋清楚為什么蜂群有時(shí)會(huì)突然死亡
HONEYBEES are sensitive creatures.
蜜蜂是一種敏感的生物，
From time to time a hive simply gives up the ghost and vanishes.
時(shí)不時(shí)就有蜂巢憑空消失。
Colony collapse disorder, as this phenomenon is known, has been getting worse since 2006.
這種現(xiàn)象被稱(chēng)為蜂群崩壞癥候群，自2006年開(kāi)始就愈發(fā)嚴(yán)重了。
Some beekeepers worry that it may make their trade impossible, and could even have an effect on agriculture.
有些養(yǎng)蜂人擔(dān)心這會(huì)使得他們的生意難以維持下去，甚至?xí)?duì)農(nóng)業(yè)造成影響。
Since many crops rely on bees to pollinate them.
因?yàn)楹芏嗲f稼依靠蜜蜂授粉。
Climate change, habitat destruction, pesticides and disease have all been suggested as possible causes.
氣候變化、棲息地被破壞、殺蟲(chóng)劑的使用和疾病都是可能的原因。但
Nothing, though, has been proved.
是尚無(wú)一個(gè)得到證實(shí)。
But the latest idea, reported in Naturwissenschaften by Jeff Pettis of the Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland,
最新的想法刊登在《自然科學(xué)》雜志上，作者是位于馬里蘭貝茨維爾的蜜蜂研究實(shí)驗(yàn)室的杰夫佩蒂斯，
suggests that this may be because more than one factor is involved.
他說(shuō)可能的原因也許不止一個(gè)。
Dr Pettis and his colleagues knew from previous reports that exposure to a pesticide,
佩蒂斯博士和他的同事們從之前的報(bào)告中得知接觸到一種殺蟲(chóng)劑,
called imidacloprid has a bad effect on honeybees' ability to learn things，
這種叫做吡蟲(chóng)啉的會(huì)影響蜜蜂的學(xué)習(xí)能力，
and wondered whether it might be causing other, less noticeable, damage.
他們懷疑這種殺蟲(chóng)劑還對(duì)蜜蜂造成其他不太明顯的傷害。
Since one thing common to colonies that go on to collapse seems to be a greater variety and higher load of parasites and pathogens than other colonies,
要死亡的蜂群有一個(gè)共同點(diǎn)，就是蜂群里所含的寄生蟲(chóng)和病原體的種類(lèi)和數(shù)量比一般蜂群的都多，
they wondered in particular whether it might be weakening the insects'immune systems,
他們特別懷疑是吡蟲(chóng)啉削弱了蜜蜂的免疫系統(tǒng)，
and thus allowing infections to spread through a hive.
進(jìn)而使得傳染病在蜂巢里擴(kuò)散開(kāi)來(lái)。
To find out, they gave 20 hives protein food in the other ten it was 20 ppb.
為了證實(shí)猜測(cè)，佩蒂斯博士和同事們把加了吡蟲(chóng)啉的蛋白食物喂給20個(gè)蜂群。
Previous experiments have shown that neither dose perceptibly harms bees.
之前的實(shí)驗(yàn)顯示這兩種劑量對(duì)蜜蜂都沒(méi)有明顯的傷害。
A further ten hives were given unspiked food as a control.
還有10個(gè)蜂群作為控制組，喂給它們的食物未加殺蟲(chóng)劑。
Then, when the young bees emerged a few weeks later,
幾周后，幼蜂出生，
Dr Pettis collected them and fed them with spores of a fungal parasite called Nosema.
佩蒂斯博士把它們收集起來(lái)，喂給它們真菌寄生蟲(chóng)小孢子蟲(chóng)的孢子。
Twelve days later, he killed them and estimated the extent of their infestation.
12天后，他把這些幼蜂都?xì)⒘瞬y(cè)量它們體內(nèi)感染程度。
Both of the groups that had been exposed to imidacloprid harboured an average of 700,000 parasite spores in each bee.
接觸到吡蟲(chóng)啉的兩組蜜蜂每只體內(nèi)寄生孢子的平均數(shù)量是700000。
Bees from the control colonies, by contrast, harboured fewer than 200,000 spores in their bodies.
與之對(duì)比，控制組的蜜蜂體內(nèi)則含不到200000個(gè)孢子。
The insecticide, in other words, was exposing bees to infestation,
換句話(huà)說(shuō)，這種殺蟲(chóng)劑使蜜蜂更容易受到感染，
and thus to a much greater chance of dying prematurely.
因而早亡的幾率更大。
Whether this is actually the reason for colonies collapsing remains to be determined.
至于這是不是就是蜂群崩壞癥候癥的真正原因還有待進(jìn)一步證實(shí)。
But it is a plausible hypothesis, and is likely to get beekeepers buzzing with interest.
但是它的確是一個(gè)說(shuō)得通的假設(shè)，養(yǎng)蜂人也會(huì)對(duì)此很感興趣。
