经济学人351:蜂群崩坏症候群 蜂群崩坏

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　Colony collapse¹ disorder²

　　蜂群崩坏症候群

　　Bee off

　　蜂群崩坏

　　A possible explanation of why beehives sometimes vanish

　　有可能解释清楚为什么蜂群有时会突然死亡

　　HONEYBEES are sensitive creatures.

　　蜜蜂是一种敏感的生物，

　　From time to time a hive simply gives up the ghost and vanishes.

　　时不时就有蜂巢凭空消失。

　　蜂群崩坏.jpg

　　Colony collapse disorder, as this phenomenon is known, has been getting worse since 2006.

　　这种现象被称为蜂群崩坏症候群，自2006年开始就愈发严重了。

　　Some beekeepers worry that it may make their trade impossible, and could even have an effect on agriculture.

　　有些养蜂人担心这会使得他们的生意难以维持下去，甚至会对农业造成影响。

　　Since many crops rely on bees to pollinate them.

　　因为很多庄稼依靠蜜蜂授粉。

　　Climate change, habitat destruction, pesticides⁴ and disease have all been suggested as possible causes.

　　气候变化、栖息地被破坏、杀虫剂的使用和疾病都是可能的原因。但

　　Nothing, though, has been proved.

　　是尚无一个得到证实。

　　But the latest idea, reported in Naturwissenschaften by Jeff Pettis of the Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland,

　　最新的想法刊登在《自然科学》杂志上，作者是位于马里兰贝茨维尔的蜜蜂研究实验室的杰夫佩蒂斯，

　　suggests that this may be because more than one factor is involved.

　　他说可能的原因也许不止一个。

　　Dr Pettis and his colleagues knew from previous reports that exposure to a pesticide³,

　　佩蒂斯博士和他的同事们从之前的报告中得知接触到一种杀虫剂,

　　called imidacloprid has a bad effect on honeybees' ability to learn things，

　　这种叫做吡虫啉的会影响蜜蜂的学习能力，

　　and wondered whether it might be causing other, less noticeable, damage.

　　他们怀疑这种杀虫剂还对蜜蜂造成其他不太明显的伤害。

　　Since one thing common to colonies that go on to collapse seems to be a greater variety and higher load of parasites⁶ and pathogens than other colonies,

　　要死亡的蜂群有一个共同点，就是蜂群里所含的寄生虫和病原体的种类和数量比一般蜂群的都多，

　　they wondered in particular whether it might be weakening the insects'immune systems,

　　他们特别怀疑是吡虫啉削弱了蜜蜂的免疫系统，

　　and thus allowing infections to spread through a hive.

　　进而使得传染病在蜂巢里扩散开来。

　　To find out, they gave 20 hives protein food in the other ten it was 20 ppb.

　　为了证实猜测，佩蒂斯博士和同事们把加了吡虫啉的蛋白食物喂给20个蜂群。

　　Previous experiments have shown that neither dose perceptibly harms bees.

　　之前的实验显示这两种剂量对蜜蜂都没有明显的伤害。

　　A further ten hives were given unspiked food as a control.

　　还有10个蜂群作为控制组，喂给它们的食物未加杀虫剂。

　　Then, when the young bees emerged a few weeks later,

　　几周后，幼蜂出生，

　　Dr Pettis collected them and fed them with spores⁷ of a fungal parasite⁵ called Nosema.

　　佩蒂斯博士把它们收集起来，喂给它们真菌寄生虫小孢子虫的孢子。

　　Twelve days later, he killed them and estimated the extent of their infestation⁸.

　　12天后，他把这些幼蜂都杀了并测量它们体内感染程度。

　　Both of the groups that had been exposed to imidacloprid harboured an average of 700,000 parasite spores in each bee.

　　接触到吡虫啉的两组蜜蜂每只体内寄生孢子的平均数量是700000。

　　Bees from the control colonies, by contrast, harboured fewer than 200,000 spores in their bodies.

　　与之对比，控制组的蜜蜂体内则含不到200000个孢子。

　　The insecticide, in other words, was exposing bees to infestation,

　　换句话说，这种杀虫剂使蜜蜂更容易受到感染，

　　and thus to a much greater chance of dying prematurely⁹.

　　因而早亡的几率更大。

　　Whether this is actually the reason for colonies collapsing¹⁰ remains¹¹ to be determined¹².

　　至于这是不是就是蜂群崩坏症候症的真正原因还有待进一步证实。

　　But it is a plausible¹³ hypothesis, and is likely to get beekeepers buzzing with interest.

　　但是它的确是一个说得通的假设，养蜂人也会对此很感兴趣。

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

3 pesticide   

n.杀虫剂，农药

参考例句：

• The pesticide was spread over the vegetable plot.菜田里撒上了农药。
• This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields.这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。

4 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 parasite   

n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客

参考例句：

• The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
• I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。

6 parasites   

寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫

参考例句：

• These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
• Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。

7 spores   

n.（细菌、苔藓、蕨类植物）孢子( spore的名词复数 )v.（细菌、苔藓、蕨类植物）孢子( spore的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Ferns, mosses and fungi spread by means of spores. 蕨类植物、苔藓和真菌通过孢子传播蔓生。
• Spores form a lipid membrane during the process of reproducing. 孢于在生殖过程中形成类脂膜。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 预防生物武器

8 infestation   

n.侵扰，蔓延

参考例句：

• The premises were treated for cockroach infestation.因蟑螂成灾，这些房屋集中进行了灭蟑活动。
• Parts of California are suffering from an infestation of oriental fruit flies.加利福尼亚的部分地区正遭受东方果蝇的大肆侵袭。

9 prematurely   

adv.过早地，贸然地

参考例句：

• She was born prematurely with poorly developed lungs. 她早产，肺部未发育健全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His hair was prematurely white, but his busy eyebrows were still jet-black. 他的头发已经白了，不过两道浓眉还是乌黑乌黑的。 来自辞典例句

10 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

11 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

12 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

13 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。