Colony Collapse Disorder and broader pollinator declines affect billions of honeybees and have cascading ecological consequences for wild plant and animal communities.
Individual honeybees experience stress responses to pesticide exposure, Varroa infestation, and habitat deprivation. At colony level, CCD represents the loss of tens of thousands of individual animals whose welfare depends on the integrity of their social superorganism. Wild bees face additional welfare pressures from competition with managed honeybees placed in high densities in pollinator habitats. The welfare and ecological cases for pollinator protection are strongly aligned.