Pretoria (AFP) - In a worrying development which could threaten food production, South Africa's traditionally tough honey bees -- which had been resistant to disease -- are now getting "sick of humans", with the population of the crucial pollinators collapsing, experts say.
The seriousness of the global problem was highlighted when US President Barack Obama announced a plan last month to make millions of acres (hectares) of land more bee-friendly.
Loss of habitat, the increasing use of pesticides and growing vulnerability to disease are blamed by many critics for the plight of the honey bees.
The environmental group Greenpeace, which has launched a campaign to save the insects, says that 70 out of the top 100 human food crops, which supply about 90 percent of the world's nutrition, are pollinated by bees.
In South Africa, an outbreak of the lethal bacterial disease foulbrood is spreading rapidly for the first time in recent history, says Mike Allsopp, honey bee specialist at the Agricultural Research Council
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-bees-are-sick-of-humans-but-man-will-feel-the-sting-2015-6#ixzz3d7eZMVuQ