# Is CCD still alive and well?



## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

My understanding is there has not been a verified case of CCD in the last year.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Define CCD???????????

All those dead-outs in the Midwest this past winter were all 100% verified cases of starvation? Not a single case of CCD?


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

None were diagnosed with CCD to my knowledge. Everyone is now blaming neonics.


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## peterloringborst (Jan 19, 2010)

> Define CCD???????????


Not sure what all the extra question marks are for. When CCD was first named in 2006, they had a very specific set of symptoms in mind. The hives in question had lots of healthy looking brood, very few bees and the queen remained. The other bees did not seem to be inclined to rob, though this may have been due to the weakened state of all the hives. 

In other words, it appeared that most of the bees had simply left -- or died -- leaving the queen and the hatching brood. No overt symptoms such as lots of mites, were apparent. As the years went by, this was seen less and less, and the cause was never identified. In fact, it was never clear if it was anything more than a freak occurrence which defied explanation. 

Some pathogens seemed to correlate with CCD, but it was never established that these were causative. Probably they were opportunistic infections of hives with some other problem. The most likely candidate is a virus or a combination of viruses. Disappearing diseases of various sorts have been observed for more than a hundred years, far predating the age of pesticides.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Thanks Pete. I felt the question was rhetorical. He should know the symptoms well.


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## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Not all of the reported cases of "CCD" had "lots of healthy" patches of brood. In November- December of 05 I first encountered many hives with a queen and maybe 2 or 3 bees. The patches of brood were the size of a silver dollar. Not "large" in my book. We have had die offs but the chance of encountering 4-5 frames of capped brood in a DO is about 1 in 100.

Is CCD the symptom or the disease? 

Still begs to answer the question as to the cause of all those "60%" losses in the Midwest this past winter! Was starvation the sole cause ?


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## Maplevalleykennel (Aug 1, 2014)

That is my thinking. In my research I found 5-6 occurrences dating back as far as the 1880s.


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## peterloringborst (Jan 19, 2010)

> That is my thinking. In my research I found 5-6 occurrences dating back as far as the 1880s.


What makes you think those were "CCD"?


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## Maplevalleykennel (Aug 1, 2014)

peterloringborst said:


> What makes you think those were "CCD"?


Almost all bees gone, queen and brood present, no corpses to be found. Just sounded very similar to me.


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## Andrew Dewey (Aug 23, 2005)

My understanding is CCD is a set of symptoms - I am not aware of anyone reporting to any reliable authority any incidents in the last year where a colony perished and there were only CCD symptoms. It is my understanding that die offs were blamed on something else.


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## Maplevalleykennel (Aug 1, 2014)

It is my understanding that die offs were blamed on something else.[/QUOTE]

My guess would be because of the fiercest winter since 1978.


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