We all know a few researchers whose main goal is to get grant money and spend it on pet projects. But that is in contrast with the majority who are working toward the common goals of heath and prosperity. In case anyone read my previous post and thought I was talking through my hat, here is a second opinion:

> Research efforts to understand honey bee resistance mechanisms are motivated by desires to breed and manage bees that are naturally resistant to parasites and, more generally, to better understand how an insect host interacts with a diverse set of pathogens. As an example of the former, beekeepers and researchers have long tried to develop lineages of bees with traits that enable colonies to survive attacks from their pathogens and parasites.  

> Wide ranging transport of bees, even across international boundaries and often to high-density meeting grounds, favors the sharing of parasites and pathogens. This unnaturally high pressure of horizontal transmission, coupled with the use of antibiotics and pesticides to control pathogens, can lead to both short-term impacts on beekeepers and long-term effects on the ability of bees to evolve resistance toward their pathogens. It can also favor the spread and de novo evolution of more virulent pathogen strains, which thrive in a world that provides them a steady supply of new and vulnerable hosts.  -- Jay D. Evans and Marla Spivak 2009

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