Mexico joins int'l bee investigation project

Mexico has joined a global project aimed at better understanding what are harming bees and finding solutions to help secure crop pollination, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) said Thursday.

Honey bees are essential for the pollination of about one third of the food humans eat -- including fruit, vegetables, oil, seeds and nuts -- yet their health and ability to pollinate crops is under serious threat.

The Global Initiative for Honey Bee Health consists of manually fitting high-tech micro-sensors, like back-packs, to certain bee populations in order to study their behavior.

Biologist and doctor in ecology Mauricio Quesada is in charge of the project in Mexico.

According to Quesada, the global initiative was started by Paulo de Souza of an Australian federal government agency for scientific research.

Quesada said that part of his investigation involves finding out the number of bees that leave and return to a hive, their routes and their natural enemies, among other aspects.

"We want to know what their natural enemies are, which include dust mites, bacteria, viruses and beetles, the floral resources they depend on and some genetic aspects that we don't know yet," said Quesada.

Currently, a group of university graduates are seeking funding from interested foundations and the Agriculture Ministry in order to analyze these phenomena nationwide.

The micro-sensors attached to each bee's chest are 2 square mm and weigh 5 mg so as not to affect their activities since a bee can weigh between 100 and 110 mg and it can carry a similar weight.

"(The micro-sensors) are used to monitor them and analyze their daily activity and throughout their lives," said Quesada.

The expert added that the project also includes Africanized bees (killer bees) that arrived in Mexico and other North American territories from Brazil in the 1980s.

The Africanized bees are a hybrid of various European and African honey bees. They were able to migrate and now have large populations.

"We want to learn about their ancestors and how old and resistant they are. Afterwards we hope to link this origin to their current behavior and the decline in native populations," Quesada said. Endi