Subject: Bee Virus

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 1996 14:38:00 GMT

B>From: [email-masked] (Kirk & Sharon Jones)
 >Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 20:27:49 -0500
 >Subject: Re: Indian B Virus
 >Organization: BeeDazzled Candleworks

B>Thanks for the postings! What info do you know of in regards to the virus
 >reputed to be carried by the varroa and treacheal mites?

Hi Bee Folks,

It's the old story, which came first, the chicken or the egg.

The first thing that has been found out in the USA on bee virus...from
several studies and tests on our bees done in labs in Europe, NS Canada,
and now in our own lab.

1) No bees have been found without the different bee virus.
2) No Varroa mites have been found without the same bee virus.

It must be remembered these test have not been on going and have
been more regulatory studies then scientific research. Beekeepers
seem to forget that there is a difference between applying scientific
methods to identify bee problems including which virus or bug might
be present in the bees to promulgate or support regulatory
responsibilities and scientific research to determine how to control
a problem.

Most of the breakthrough's in applied bee science have come from the
beekeepers themselves through trial and much tERROR. Most all of this
today is done outside the framework of our laws and regulations at the
risk to the individuals doing it who are branded outlaw beekeepers by
our regulators. We can wish it was different but the days of applied
research by public agencies providing quick fixes has long passed. And
in fact the regulatory mentality is to reject all new ideas or products
that have not been approved, and since they are the one's to approve new
ideas there is little hope or at the least much wasted effort adding to
the cost and causing delays measured in years and much disappointment.

Several different bee virus are found in the bees blood, and the mites
feed on the blood, so the mites have the virus if the bees have the
virus. BUT since no one has found v.mites without the virus no one
knows who gets what from whom.

Lab studies in Europe have shown that the bee virus can be passed from
the v.mites to bees through the puncture wounds. This is LAB science
and may have nothing to do with what happens in the field as one virus
or another may be endemic in the bees to begin with.

I am sure that the mites, all of them, are not good for bees. I also
suspect that controlling them may be beneficial if other stress factors
are present, and they are in most situations but not necessarily all.
The problem here is that NO ONE in this world knows for sure, yet, and
sadly the vast majority of beekeepers in the US have intervened with
chemical control forced on them by our regulatory system and it's
in house scientists. It is incredulous that now the same people want
to find queens from hives that have not been treated when only a short
time ago thousands of hives were beeing destroyed because of their
recommendations base on their own brand of regulatory science, and
beekeepers were being forced to use chemical treatments.

As for the T mite, I am not sure they are all that important to the
health of the bees but would not argue that they should or should not be
controlled. The problem with them is that in field tests the check hives
would show spontaneous reduction in T mite populations without any
control. I do not dispute the beekeepers who have lost bees from any
cause they want to put it on. One is as good as the other when the
bees are dead it is hard to be sure of anything.

The main reason I do not blame mites alone for dramatic loss of bees
is I from what have witnessed in my own hives and others, is that when
it is bad, it may build up over several seasons, and all, 100%, of the
hives will be effected at about the same rate. This is not the work of a
parasite, in my own mind at least, but the work of a toxin which could
be the end results of viral infections. And more important these
losses predate the arrival of any mites by 100 years in the US and
I am sure the rest of the bee world.

In fact the observations by beekeepers and biologists of massive
unexplained losses of bees is the only thing that is a constant.
The bee's are dead!! I won't repeat the rest but in looking over these
reports by dozens of authors through the generations one must come to
the conclusion that over the years they were reporting on the same
problem..but each generation had a different name for it, bee it the
(B)PMS, the buzz word for todays unexplained loss in the US, or the
Disappearing Disease (DD), or a dozen other flavors of the year.

There is hope, better beekeeping helps. That's a polite way of saying
that you may have to invest more time and money to keep your bees
alive and healthy, or maybe go back to the proven system of replacing
the bees each year by one system or another. But there is hope, and that
is that the bad times for our bees seem to run in cycles. All we have to
do is survive the down side. I suspect because of the nature of
beekeeping today, bees on wheels, when the up side begins it will do so
for all at a fast rate. The high value of honey in today's market could
also accelerate what ever changes need to be made. Sadly individuals may
not recover, just hope you or I am not one of those.

                            ttul  Andy-
                            Los Banos, California

(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.

(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.

---
 þ QMPro 1.53 þ ... Nor will a bee buzz round two swelling peaches,