2430. Millions of Bees Dead After South Carolina Sprays for Zika Mosquitoes

By Ben Guarino, The Washington Post, September 1, 2016

Collateral damage or another deadly policy? 

On Sunday morning, the South Carolina honey bees began to die in massive numbers.

Death came suddenly to Dorchester County, S.C. Stressed insects tried to flee their nests, only to surrender in little clumps at hive entrances. The dead worker bees littering the farms suggested that colony collapse disorder was not the culprit — in that odd phenomenon, workers vanish as though raptured, leaving a living queen and young bees behind.

Instead, the dead heaps signaled the killer was less mysterious, but no less devastating. The pattern matched acute pesticide poisoning. By one estimate, at a single apiary — Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply, in Summerville — 46 hives died on the spot, totaling about 2.5 million bees.

Walking through the farm, one Summerville woman wrote on Facebook, was “like visiting a cemetery, pure sadness.”

A Clemson University scientist collected soil samples from Flowertown on Tuesday, according to WCBD-TV, to further investigate the cause of death. But to the bee farmers, the reason is already clear. Their bees had been poisoned by Dorchester’s own insecticide efforts, casualties in the war on disease-carrying mosquitoes.

On Sunday morning, parts of Dorchester County were sprayed with Naled, a common insecticide that kills mosquitoes on contact. The United States began using Naled in 1959, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which notes that the chemical dissipates so quickly it is not a hazard to people. That said, human exposure to Naled during spraying “should not occur.”

In parts of South Carolina, trucks trailing pesticide clouds are not an unusual sight, thanks to a mosquito-control program that also includes destroying larvae. Given the current concerns of West Nile virus and Zika — there are several dozen cases of travel-related Zika in South Carolina, though the state health department reports no one has yet acquired the disease from a local mosquito bite — Dorchester decided to try something different Sunday.

It marked a departure from Dorchester County’s usual ground-based efforts. For the first time, an airplane dispensed Naled in a fine mist, raining insect death from above between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Sunday. The county says it provided plenty of warning, spreading word about the pesticide plane via a newspaper announcement Friday and a Facebook post Saturday.

Local beekeepers felt differently.

“Had I known, I would have been camping on the steps doing whatever I had to do screaming, ‘No you can’t do this,'” beekeeper Juanita Stanley said in an interview with Charleston’s WCSC-TV. Stanley told the Charleston Post and Courier that the bees are her income, but she is more devastated by the loss of the bees than her honey.

The county acknowledged the bee deaths Tuesday. “Dorchester County is aware that some beekeepers in the area that was sprayed on Sunday lost their beehives,” Jason Ward, county administrator, said in a news release. He added, according to the Charleston Post and Courier, “I am not pleased that so many bees were killed.”

Spraying Naled from the air is not unprecedented, particularly when covering areas that cannot be reached by truck. In a single year in Florida, more than 6 million acres were fumigated with the chemical, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency argued in January that the technique should be used to curb Zika in Puerto Rico.

But the insect neurotoxin cannot discriminate between honey bees and bloodsuckers. A profile of the chemical in Cornell University’s pesticide database warned that “Naled is highly toxic to bees.”

Although the insecticide was known to kill bees, to South Carolina beekeepers spraying had not been as significant a concern as parasites, disease and other hive threats. As South Carolina Beekeepers Association President Larry Haigh told the Post and Courier in June 2015, many counties will spray at night, when honey bees do not forage for pollen. Plus, given sufficient warning, beekeepers will shield their hives and protect the bees’ food and water from contamination.

Sunday was different. Summerville resident Andrew Macke, who keeps bees as a hobby, wrote on Facebook that the hot weather left bees particularly exposed. Once temperatures exceed 90 degrees, bees may exit the nest to cool down in what is called a beard, clustering on the outside of the hive in a ball. Neither Macke nor Stanley had covered their hives.

And then came the plane.

“They passed right over the trees three times,” Stanley said to ABC 4 News. After the plane left, the familiar buzzing stopped. The silence in its wake was like a morgue, she said.

As for the dead bees, as Stanley told the AP, her farm “looks like it’s been nuked.”

A Summerville resident started a Change.org petition calling for Dorchester County to halt aerial Naled spraying. It is unclear whether those who lost bees are pursuing other recourse.

Update: Dorchester County administrator Jason Ward wrote to The Washington Post in a statement on Thursday, clarifying that the county sent out a press release at 9:15 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 26.

“The beekeepers that were on the county’s contact list that were in the zone to be sprayed were called with one exception. Mr. Scott Gaskins, who runs the Mosquito Control program, failed to call Mitch Yawn, Ms. Juanita Stanley’s business partner,” Ward said in the email.

“The second issue regarding beekeepers like Mr. Andrew Macke revolves around the fact that the county did not have these locations on its list. However, we have reached out to the Lowcountry Beekeepers Association and they provided us with the names and locations for other beekeepers in Dorchester County.”

2219. Raúl Castro: An Appeal to Our People to Prevent the Spread of Zika Virus

By Raúl Castro Ruz, Granma, February 22, 2016

Government fumigators prepare to spray homes for mosquitos in Havana Monday. Cuban President Raul Castro announced Monday that he is dispatching soldiers to help keep the Zika virus out of Cuba, calling on the entire country to help kill the mosquito that carries the disease. Photo: AP.

As is known by our people, the World Health Organization has warned of the rapid spreading of the Zika virus, affecting 32 countries on our continent, and has declared an international health emergency.

Although scientific evidence has not demonstrated that a Zika virus infection during pregnancy causes microcephaly, in all cases reported in affected countries, a strong link with an increase in this birth defect, yes, has been found.

The disease is spread by mosquitoes from the genus Aedes. There is currently no vaccine or treatment for the illness, therefore the best way to prevent it is to eliminate or reduce the vector’s presence, and protect ourselves from these insect bites.

To date, no cases have been detected in our country, although all cases of non-specific fever symptoms are being monitored and studied to identify the presence of the virus early on, and international sanitary controls are being intensified. If anyone with the virus is found, all conditions are in place to provide qualified medical assistance.

Cuba has undertaken intense efforts to reduce the vector’s presence, with the objective of maintaining its presence at levels which do not represent a danger.

Nevertheless, factors related to inadequate technical quality of anti-vectoral work, poor environmental sanitation, and adverse weather conditions have contributed to the risk of diseases spreading.

Given this situation, the Party and government leadership have adopted a plan of action, under the direction of the Ministry of Public Health, to confront the Zika virus, and consequently dengue and Chikungunya, as well.

Once again, the true leadership of the struggle against the threat of an epidemic is the responsibility of our entire people, since their conscious participation is indispensable if this important and necessary task is to be successful.

Urgently needed are intensive sanitation programs in workplaces, residential areas, and inside homes themselves, with the active collaboration of community bodies and grassroots organizations.

It is imperative that every Cuban man and woman assume this battle as a personal issue, a worrisome problem, given above all the responsibility it implies for their families.

As part of the approved action plan, the Revolutionary Armed Forces is assigning more than 9,000 troops, including permanent and reserve officers, as well as technical equipment to reinforce anti-vectoral and sanitation efforts, with the additional support of 200 Revolutionary National Police officers.

At this time, it is imperative that all citizens and entities strictly comply with sanitation norms and measures adopted to guarantee anti-vectoral efforts, to avoid contributing to the spreading of epidemics, or other behaviors which promote or constitute a threat to public health.

Following this intensive stage, a plan must be implemented which is sustainable over time, that does not become just another campaign, to guarantee that levels of infestation are minimal.

As has been the case on other occasions, our people will be able to show their capacity for organization, to maintain the levels of health reached by the Revolution, and thus avoid suffering for our families. More than ever before in similar efforts, it is imperative to be more disciplined and exacting.

Committees for the Defense of the Revolution ready to Confront Public Health Emergency

By Granma, February 23, 2016

HAVANA.— Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) across the country will undertake sanitation hearings and preventative measures February 26 through March 1, in response to President Raúl Castro’s call to energetically confront the current epidemiological situation.

To be distributed today in all provinces and municipalities is a document outlining measures to be adopted by Cuban families to combat Aedes mosquitoes and avoid epidemics, explained Teresa Ramírez Paz, who attends public health issues at the CDR national office.

Speaking to ACN, she reported that community leaders of CDR, the Federation of Cuban Women, and People’s Power bodies, as well as family doctors and nurses will receive training to prepare for the hearings.

Public health experts will participate in these meetings in locations facing serious mosquito infestations, she said.

Among steps to be taken by CDR are accompanying sanitation inspectors, supporting fumigation teams, and eliminating all possible mosquito breeding sites.

More than 30 countries in the Americas have reported cases of Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika; while Angola is currently experiencing a serious malaria outbreak. 

2214. Zika Outbreak Could Be an Omen of the Global Warming Threat

By Justine Gillis, The New York Times, February 18, 2016

The global public health emergency involving deformed babies emerged in 2015, the hottest year in the historical record, with an outbreak in Brazil of a disease transmitted by heat-loving mosquitoes. Can that be a coincidence?

Scientists say it will take them years to figure that out, and pointed to other factors that may have played a larger role in starting the crisis. But these same experts added that the Zika epidemic, as well as the related spread of a disease called dengue that is sickening as many as 100 million people a year and killing thousands, should be interpreted as warnings.

Over the coming decades, global warming is likely to increase the range and speed the life cycle of the particular mosquitoes carrying these viruses, encouraging their spread deeper into temperate countries like the United States.

Recent research suggests that under a worst-case scenario, involving continued high global emissions coupled with fast population growth, the number of people exposed to the principal mosquito could more than double, to as many as 8 billion or 9 billion by late this century from roughly 4 billion today.

“As we get continued warming, it’s going to become more difficult to control mosquitoes,” said Andrew Monaghan, who is studying the interaction of climate and health at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “The warmer it is, the faster they can develop from egg to adult, and the faster they can incubate viruses.”

Already, climate change is suspected — though not proven — to have been a factor in a string of disease outbreaks afflicting both people and animals. These include the spread o f malaria into the highlands of eastern Africa, the rising incidence of Lyme disease in North America, and the spread of a serious livestock ailment called bluetongue into parts of Europe that were once too cold for it to thrive.

In interviews, experts noted that no epidemic was ever the result of a single variable.

Instead, epidemics always involve interactions among genes, ecology, climate and human behavior, presenting profound difficulties for scientists trying to tease apart the contributing factors. “The complexity is enormous,” said Walter J. Tabachnick, a professor with the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, a unit of the University of Florida in Vero Beach.

The epidemics of Zika and dengue are cases in point. The viruses are being transmitted largely by the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. That creature adapted long ago to live in human settlements, and developed a concomitant taste for human blood.

Cities in the tropics, the climate zone most favorable to the mosquito, have undergone explosive growth: Humanity passed a milestone a few years ago when more than half the population had moved to urban areas. But spending on health care and on basic public health infrastructure, like water pipes and sewers, has not kept pace. Mosquito control has also faltered in recent decades.

The mosquito lays its eggs in containers of water, of a sort that are especially common in the huge slums of Latin American cities. With unreliable access to piped water, people there store water in rooftop cisterns, buckets and the like. Old tires and other debris can also become mosquito habitat.

Water storage near homes is commonplace in areas where Zika has spread rapidly, like the cities of Recife and Salvador in northeastern Brazil, and where dengue experienced a surge in 2015, like São Paulo, Brazil’s largest state.

Altogether, dengue killed at least 839 people in Brazil in 2015, a 40 percent increase from the previous year. Worldwide, dengue is killing more than 20,000 people a year.

Several experts said in interviews that a main reason for the disease outbreaks was most likely the expansion of the number of people at risk, through urbanization, population growth and international travel. They see the changing climate as just another stress on top of a situation that was already rife with peril.

While they do not understand to what degree rising temperatures and other weather shifts may have contributed to the outbreaks, they do understand some of the potential mechanisms.

The mosquitoes mostly live on flower nectar, but the female of the species needs a meal of human blood to have enough protein to lay her eggs. If she bites a person infected with dengue, Zika or any of several other diseases, she picks up the virus.

The virus has to reproduce in the mosquito for a certain period before it can be transmitted to another person in a subsequent bite. The higher the air temperature, the shorter that incubation period. Moreover, up to a point, higher temperatures cause the mosquitoes to mature faster.

With rising temperatures, “You’re actually speeding up the whole reproductive cycle of the mosquitoes,” said Charles B. Beard, who heads a unit in Fort Collins, Colo., studying insect-borne diseases for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. “You get larger populations, with more generations of mosquitoes, in a warmer, wetter climate. You have this kind of amplification of the risk.”

Aedes aegypti is present across the southern tier of the United States. Brief outbreaks of dengue have occurred recently at the warmest margins of the country, and one is underway in Hawaii. But with pervasive window screens and air-conditioning, the risk of disease transmission is far less for most Americans than for people in poorer countries.

The mosquito does not thrive in areas with cold winters. Some research suggests that continued climatic warming could allow the mosquito to colonize more of North America in coming decades, though how much of a disease risk that would represent is anybody’s guess.

The yellow fever mosquito competes with a cousin, the Asian tiger mosquito, that has also colonized the United States, and is more tolerant of cold weather. Whether one would beat out the other in a hotter climate is unclear. Likewise, it is unclear how effective the Asian tiger mosquito might become at transmitting Zika or dengue viruses.

In principle, the risk from continued global warming applies not just to temperate countries, but to cities at high altitude in tropical countries. Researchers are keeping a close eye on Mexico City, for instance.

With 21 million people in the city and its suburbs, Mexico City is the largest metropolis of the Western Hemisphere. While the lowlands of Mexico are plagued by yellow fever mosquitoes and the viruses they transmit, the country’s capital sits on a mountain plain that has — up to now — been too cold for the mosquitoes.

But temperatures are rising, and the mosquitoes have recently been detected in low numbers near Mexico City.

“The mosquito is just down the hill, literally,” Dr. Monaghan said. “I think all the potential is there to have virus transmission if climatic conditions become a bit more suitable.”