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Feature
"Are Commercial Honeybees Making Wild Bees Sick?"
by Berly McCoy
The team plucked wild bumblebees from 19 sites around northern Vermont. Some sites were close to a commercial apiary — within 0.2 miles or a short city block — while others were farther away — at least 0.6 miles. If honeybees were present, the researchers collected them too.
The team then measured the number of viruses stuck to each bee. Just because an animal has a virus on its outside doesn’t mean it has an infection. You may have touched your friend’s influenza-soaked tissue, but washed your hands before the flu infected you. So the researchers also tested each bee for virus genetic material, which is only made once the virus infects a host.
The team looked at two viruses — deformed wing virus and black queen cell virus — both of which infect honeybees and bumblebees. These infections can potentially cause significant colony damage in honeybees, but researchers don’t know yet what they do to bumblebee colonies.
To figure out how honeybee viruses are jumping to bumblebees, the researchers collected flower samples. Back in the lab, they tested ground-up flowers for viruses and mapped how close the contaminated flowers were to apiaries. They suspected that bees shed virus pieces on flowers during foraging.
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Question
Use the article excerpt below to answer the question.
The article claimed that actions humans take to help honeybees may harm wild bumblebees.
What best describes the type of evidence used in this section to support that claim?
(1 point)
Responses
The author made specific claims based on a scientific study.
The author described the type of study scientists used to assess the problem.
The author gave a detailed description of how viruses live and spread.
The author provided detailed findings from a scientific study.
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The best response that describes the type of evidence used in this section to support the claim that actions humans take to help honeybees may harm wild bumblebees is:
The author provided detailed findings from a scientific study.
This response accurately reflects the description of the research conducted by the team, including the collection of bees and flower samples, and the analysis of viruses found on and within the bees.
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