Australian scientists use electronic tags to look into mortality rate hike in honey bees

Honey bees around the world could soon be wearing small, electronic transmitter devices as part of an Australia-led study into the sharp rise in the insect's mortality rate.

Scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) are leading the Global Initiative for Honey bee Health, a multi-national effort to find a solution to the widespread deaths the species in recent years.

Honey bees are crucial for the pollination of more than 30 percent of the food that humans consume, including most fruits, vegetables, oils, seeds and nuts.

Recent discoveries have highlighted the widespread deterioration in the health of the honey bee, which is affecting their ability to pollinate our crops and, on Tuesday, Professor Paolo de Souza from the CSIRO said the global initiative was underway to help understand what is harming the bees.

He said radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which also include micro-sensors, would allow researchers to monitor the health and well-being of the honey bee in its day-to-day life.

"The tiny technology allows researchers to analyze the effects of stress factors including disease, pesticides, air pollution, water contamination, diet and extreme weather on the movements of bees and their ability to pollinate," De Souza said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We're also investigating what key factors, or combination of factors, lead to bee deaths on mass."

"The sensors, working in partnership with Intel technology, operate in a similar way to an airplane's black box flight recorder in that they provide us with vital information about what stress factors impact bee health."

De Souza said that bees were generally 'predictable' animals, but recent behavioral patterns indicate that stress was affecting the wider population around the globe.

He added that by tracking and electronically modeling the bees' movements, researchers can help "identify the causes of stress in order to protect the important pollinating work honey bees do."

The CSIRO's pollination researcher, Dr Saul Cunningham, said while Australia had so far been lucky enough to not suffer from noticeable declines in bee numbers, it was important to future- proof the plight of the honey bee in Australia.

"This puts Australia in a good position to act as a control group for research on this major issue that could one day become our problem too," Cunningham said.

De Souza said that by tackling the issue now, the CSIRO could help save the honey bee "before it is too late."

"The time is now for a tightly-focused, well-coordinated national and international effort, using the same shared technology and research protocols, to help solve the problems facing honey bees worldwide before it is too late," he said.

De Souza said he intends on extending the research into Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina and Britain after a number of inquiries into the CSIRO's research.

Currently, RFID tags have been fitted to more than 15,000 bees in Australia and Brazil. Endi