ENVIRONMENT Secretary Hilary Benn has announced an extra £4.3m to safeguard and undertake more research into the health of bees.

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Hilary Benn has announced an extra £4.3m to safeguard and undertake more research into the health of bees.

Benn said nearly £2.3m during the next two years would support the work of the National Bee Unit, while a further £2m over five years would go towards bee health research.

It is often said that "a third of all we eat is dependent on pollination by honey bees".

While honey bees contribute directly to food production in the UK, largely at a local level, they make a much more important contribution to crop production through pollination. Figures from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) put a conservative estimate of £165m (in 2006) on the annual value of UK agricultural pollination provided by honey bees. By contrast, the annual value of honey production in the UK fluctuates between £10m and £30m.

In addition, it is believed honey bees provide more than 50% of the pollination of wild plants upon which the majority of other wildlife ultimately depends.

It is generally accepted that wild honey bee populations in the UK have been wiped out by pests and disease, so all the honey bee pollination activity is now undertaken by managed bees.

There are approximately 44,000 beekeepers managing around 274,000 hives. These hives produce about 6000 tonnes of honey per year, which is about 20% of the honey we consume. The number of bee hives has declined from 400,000 in the 1950s.

Unusually high levels of colony loss are affecting the Western honey bee Apis mellifera across the globe. The term colony collapse disorder (CCD) has been used to describe a specific colony loss phenomenon in the US. The cause of CCD is as yet unknown.

According to Defra and experts in the National Bee Unit, there is no evidence we are suffering from CCD in the UK yet.

However, UK bee farmers and keepers are facing a growing range of devastating bee health problems resulting in significant colony losses and reduced honey production.

Historically, UK bee keepers would expect winter losses of about 4% and maybe as much as 10% in a bad year. Losses in winter 07/08 were 13% to 30%, that is more than three times the level expected normally. Subsequently, the 2008 UK honey harvest is more than 50% down on normal levels.

All the key honey bee industry organisations are agreed that pests and disease, particularly the parasitic blood-sucking mite Varroa, are the principal threat facing UK honey bees.

According to Defra, the Varroa mite is probably present in all UK bee colonies and is the number one management problem for beekeepers, causing direct or indirect damage to colonies.

Varroa is often cited as a key factor causing significant colony losses. This is because in addition to the direct damage it causes, it also vectors secondary pathogens such as viruses and has other detrimental effects on the health of bees.