A metagenomic survey of microbes in honey bee colony collapse disorder. Journal   Science. Citation   Science. 318(5848):283-7 Publication date   2007 Oct 12 Authors   Cox-Foster DL Conlan S Holmes EC Palacios G Evans JD Moran NA Quan PL Briese T Hornig M Geiser DM Martinson V vanEngelsdorp D Kalkstein AL Drysdale A Hui J Zhai J Cui L Hutchison SK Simons JF Egholm M Pettis JS Lipkin WI Investigators   Diana Cox-Foster Liwang Cui David Geiser Grants   United States NIAID U01AI070411 United States NIAID U54AI57158 MeSH headings   Bacteria Bees Genomics Insect Viruses Nosema MeSH qualifiers   isolation & purification microbiology virology Abstract   In colony collapse disorder (CCD), honey bee colonies inexplicably lose their workers. CCD has resulted in a loss of 50 to 90% of colonies in beekeeping operations across the United States. The observation that irradiated combs from affected colonies can be repopulated with naive bees suggests that infection may contribute to CCD. We used an unbiased metagenomic approach to survey microflora in CCD hives, normal hives, and imported royal jelly. Candidate pathogens were screened for significance of association with CCD by the examination of samples collected from several sites over a period of 3 years. One organism, Israeli acute paralysis virus of bees, was strongly correlated with CCD.