They are the humming, buzzing yet unsung engines supporting South Africa’s food chain.
Usually unnoticed except when they establish a hive in your back garden, bees provide one in three bites of food to South Africans, say experts.
South Africa’s bees have been thought more resistant to the diseases that are increasingly devastating their global counterparts. But a bacterium known as American Foul Brood (AFB) is sweeping through colonies in the Western Cape and may spread to other regions of the country.
How bad the infection will get, and how resilient our bees will be, remains to be seen. South Africa’s bees include two sub-species of the Western honeybee, the Cape honeybee and the African honeybee. Because local bees have been left to breed naturally, without human intervention as in other parts of the world, they are more genetically diverse.
This may be one reason why local bees are more adaptable and better at surviving the diseases that have spread around the world. Among them is a parasitic mite called Varroa destructor that attacks bee larvae.
Local bees have managed to adapt to the invasion of the mite, unlike many other bee populations, which cannot cope without human intervention. But in the last few months AFB has become a growing concern for the South African bee industry.
According to Mike Allsopp, senior researcher at the Agricultural Research Council, the infection appears to be widespread in the Western Cape. Because it is a new disease for the country, laboratory facilities are still being developed to analyse field samples and process results.
Allsopp said it may be a different strain of the bacterium, but this is unconfirmed. ‘It is almost certain that the disease will spread to 100% of the local bee population within the next year or two,†he said. ‘What the impact will be is anyone’s guess.â€
In South Africa there are no registered antibiotics to treat bees. This has kept South African honey and bee products free of antibiotic residue and has allowed bees to develop their own resistance to diseases.
Allsopp believes that local bees may be able to adapt to AFB as they have to Varroa destructor. ‘The industry could possibly sustain losses of 30% to 50%, but anything more than that and agricultural production would begin to experience severe losses,†he explained.
The department is beginning to lay the groundwork for the registration of antibiotics to treat the disease, should a worst-case scenario come to pass. But Allsopp said any response would be driven by how beekeepers decided to handle the problem. ‘Of scientific concern is that there is no exit strategy from antibiotics,†said Allsopp.
In countries such as the United States, Canada and Argentina, beekeepers use antibiotics on a prophylactic basis and bee products end up with high residual levels of the drugs. In addition there is the concern that pests and diseases are becoming resistant and bees will be left vulnerable to newly evolved illnesses.
One of the best options would be to manage AFB without using antibiotics or allowing the bee population to collapse, he said. ‘But sooner or later, if losses are severe enough, regardless of policy, beekeepers will treat [with antibiotics]. If the situation gets so dire that they take that step, it is better to ensure it is done in a controlled, managed process.â€
The bee industry is concerned about the health of local bees, but not simply due to the spread of disease. ‘Bees depend on a healthy environment and forage. Both of these are threatened by modern trends — development, pollution and climate change,†said John Moodie, president of the South African Bee Industry Organisation.
‘The role of bees as pollinators is vital and contributes billions to the economy, but this service does place bees under stress, so we need to ensure that we keep our bees in pristine condition.â€
In addition, the beekeeping population in most developed countries is on the decline. The profile of beekeepers is changing, with fewer beekeepers running larger-scale operations. In South Africa there are only about 80 full-time commercial beekeepers, according to Allsopp, although there are thousands of hobbyists.
Garth Cambray, a founder of the Makana Meadery, which produces honey mead and bee products and offers beekeeping training, believes local bees will evolve resistance to AFB with time, but there will be a decline in beehive numbers as bees develop this resistance.
‘As it spreads through the country this decline will be noticeable. Currently our country does not have sufficient bees to service our honey market — and to pollinate our food crops. The presence of bees for pollination is a major limiting factor in nearly all sectors of agriculture other than [crops such as] maize, wheat, barley and oats.â€
Cambray also points out that crops such as lucerne, a feedstock for most of South Africa’s dairy industry, rely on bees to pollinate it and produce seeds. Without bees, a large volume of our meat and dairy products would be severely depleted. And this is notwithstanding the role bees play in pollinating indigenous flora that support various ecosystems.
Cambray is deeply concerned that ignorance of bees and their importance leads many people to exterminate hives that form too close to human habitation. The difficulty in recruiting beekeepers is another problem he notes, but scarce skills in key organisations such as the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries are an even bigger concern.
He notes that underskilled and frequently unmotivated staff in the department make it difficult to curb or manage the threat of bee diseases. The department of agriculture did not respond to questions by the time of going to print.
The global fight for bees
Bees the world over are facing ever-greater stresses including disease, pollution and the loss of habitats that allow them to forage for food.
According to media reports the bee population in the United Kingdom is believed to have fallen by between 10% and 15% in recent years. This has caused such alarm that the UK government is pumping millions of pounds into research to aid bees.
In addition a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, where whole bee colonies die out or disappear, has captured public attention. Researchers believe it may be evidence of the cumulative effect of a series of environmental stresses harming bees and that these stresses are worse than ever.
Interference from electromagnetic forces found around things such as power lines may also have a minor effect on bees.
The beekeeper
Theunis Engelbrecht started keeping bees in 1976 when he was in grade seven. As an adult he has branched out to create a commercial beekeeping operation that produces honey and rents out hives to farmers to pollinate crops.
Based in Douglas in the Northern Cape, he provides services in the Northern Cape, the Free State and the North West provinces. His bees are rented out to pollinate seed onions, seed carrots, watermelons, sweet melons and different varieties of pumpkins.
‘As a beekeeper depending on bees for my livelihood I am concerned about every possible disease,†he told the Mail & Guardian and he is particularly concerned about the outbreak of foul brood in the Western Cape.