Colony Collapse Disorder is a mass dying off of worker bees from a hive. This disorder prevents the bees from natural pollination efforts as well as inflicting severe losses in commercial honey bee pollination efforts. The cause is currently unknown. C.C.D. has been reported in 27 states in the United States as well as Poland, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Indiahttp://pollinators.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=850&&PageID=3656&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true<ref>

The United States Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vislack has declared August 22nd National Honey Bee Awareness Day to raise awareness of the important role honey bees play in agriculture in the United states and around the world.http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/08/0394.xml<ref>

Billions of dollars of crops from over 100 different plants are pollinated by honeybees both naturally and from commercial beekeepers. Almonds, Apples, and Blueberries are pollinated at or near 100% by honeybees.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crop_plants_pollinated_by_bees <ref>

Genetic differences between C.C.D. infected honey bees and uninfected ones have provided an alternate theory to the cause of C.C.D.. Pesticide usage is still considered as a possible cause but the new theory is that genetic damage caused by infection with multiple viruses has caused genetic damage to the honey bees making them unable to fight additional onslaughts of toxins or infections either man-made or natural.http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/environment/2009/aug/Bee-Gene-Damage-May-Be-Cause-of-Colony-Collapse-Disorder.html<ref>

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