Page 14
The Battalion
Thursday, October 13, 1988
Scientists: Africanized bees
should reach U.S. by 1990
WESLACO (AP) — Swarms of po
tentially aggressive Africanized bees
should reach the United States by early
1990, a scientist reported Wednesday.
Other researchers at the American Bee
Research Conference reported that the
bees are not losing their African genes as
they edge their way northward.
The bees are moving north at the rate
of about 300 miles per year, Jose Villa of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture said
at a conference at Texas A&M Universi
ty’s Agricultural Experiment Station 12
miles from the Mexican border in the Rio
Grande Valley.
Villa, with the USDA’s Agricultural
Research Service in Baton Rouge, La.,
described the bees’ movement as “a very
dilute front that increases density
through time.”
Scientists have been concerned since
the accidental release in 1956 of 20 to 30
swarms of African bees in Brazil. In col
onies, Africanized bees tend to be more
defensive of their hives and will more
aggressively attack humans and pursue
them for longer distances than the Euro
pean bees common in the Americas.
bees in South America and Mexico
showing that the African variety in the
wild retains its genetic integrity.
Their aggressive behavior has earned
them the nickname ‘‘killer bees.” Scien
tists say the Africanized bees’ behavior
makes it difficult for beekeepers to raise
them commercially.
The Africanized bees have steadily
moved toward the United States, and two
years ago were first spotted in the south
ern Mexican state of Chiapas, Villa said.
‘‘These findings are truly phenomenal
and they are conclusive,” Hall said.
The bees had virtually a total absence
of European mother lines after 1,000
generations. Hall said, adding he prefers
to call the wild swarms ‘‘African-de
rived” rather than Africanized.
He projected that the African-derived
bees will reach Brownsville at the south
ern tip of Texas by March 1990.
Bee researchers and the bee industry
in the United States have long assumed
that the African genes would be diluted
as they mixed with the European variety.
But Glenn Hall, a bee researcher at the
University of Florida, reported studies of
Orley Taylor, an insect ecologist at the
University of Kansas, said researchers
do not know why the genetic makeup of
the Africanized bees is not diluted more,
as beekeepers had hoped.
‘‘This African population ... is rapidly
reproducing and truly self-sustaining,”
Taylor said.
‘‘This African population is going to
reach the U.S. virtually unchanged,”
Taylor said. ‘‘It’s going to keep coming
at us no matter what we do. ”
Candidates defend stances
on insurance, AIDS issues
Here is a look at the presidential can
didates’ positions on uninsured people
and AIDS.
The Uninsured
Dukakis, calling it a disgrace that the
United States is the only industrialized
country other than South Africa without
universal health insurance, proposes to
help 22 million of the uninsured by back
ing legislation to order all but the small
est employers to arrange health insur
ance.
While Dukakis has said this require
ment would not cost the federal Treasury
anything, Bush has labeled it a $35 bil
lion tax on business that could force
thousands out of work.
The vice president said he wants to al
low poor people to buy into the $32 bil
lion Medicaid program, which now cov
ers 24 million of the needy.
lion to $9 billion to cover all uninsured
poor people.
AIDS
Dukakis has also called for a $ 100 mil
lion program to provide medical and nu
tritional care to 200,000 pregnant
women who lack insurance or Medicaid
coverage.
He has not offered all the specifics,
but Bush promises to press for manda
tory Medicaid coverage for all children
living in poverty, starting with infants.
Bush said ‘‘we may have to spend
even more” than the current $1 billion
budget for the fight against the deadly vi
rus, but ‘‘money alone won’t stop
AIDS.” He said education is crucial, in
cluding giving students the facts in a
thoughtful, sensitive manner.
‘‘I want to make sure that quality, af
fordable health care is the birthright of
every family and citizen in this land,”
said the Massachusetts governor, whose
state last April began requiring health in
surance with most jobs.
The Republican would phase in affor
dable coverage for pregnant women and
infants up to 185 percent of the poverty
line, and eventually cover older children
as well, according to a position paper.
Medicaid now covers less than half of
all poor children, leaving 11 million un
protected .
But expanding Medicaid will not be
cheap.
It is estimated that it would cost $8 bil-
Bush supports legislation that would
make it a crime to discriminate against
AIDS patients and those infected with
the virus. He said AIDS test results must
be kept appropriately confidential.
Dukakis also supports a $1 billion-plus
AIDS research and education budget.
‘‘As president, I will educate the pub
lic about both the facts and the myths of
this terrible disease,” he said. Children
should be taught about the disease as part
of a comprehensive health education pro
gram beginnning in the early grades.
Step by step
Photo by Phelan M. E&m g
Wayne Mann, a senior horticulture major, checks his de- Horticulture and Forestry Science Building Monday,
gree plan on the steps by the administrative offices in the
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