<<Peter Borst wrote about Bob Harrisions post:(many things have) >>been
known for 20 years.<< and included references > Sources:
>
> http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/sanford/apis/apis88/APjun88.HTM
>
> http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/sanford/apis/apis92/APAPR92.HTM
>
> http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ent/n05-024.html

These are great comments, and prescient. Its a good thing
DavidVanderdussen is reminding us what we already know. My apologies in
advance to those for whom my points are not new. And, I acknowledge that I
am not intimately involved with the business, financial and family aspects
of bee business in the USA. So please accept my diatribe as a view I
haven’t (myself) seen in the list before now, and as something to provoke
this “list for informed discussion”.

In medicine, in my case veterinary medicine, much wisdom is passed on as
little sayings. Same thing with my Grandma. The ones that are relevant
here are (from Granny) “There’s not much new under the sun”, and from my
professors “Common things happen commonly, rare things ...hardly ever!”,
also “For every disease under the sun, there is a cure or there is none,
if there be one let us find it, if there be none never mind it” and “if it
hurts when you do that, then stop doing it!” Our surgeons said “When in
doubt, cut it out”, but most of the time they were just joking. There is
also much to learn from the study of comparative diseases, or management
systems.

The thing is, there is not much happening across North America that should
be surprising, or that we can’t explain with what we already know about
known bee diseases, biology, chemistry of pyrethrin and OP insecticides
(in for example, control of horn flies in Cattle), and management. We
don’t have to invent new diseases to explain what we are seeing. Mites are
common, all the other viruses etc that we have uncovered, are rare. We
already understand disease, in that the stressors of mites make all kinds
of previously innocuous things come to fore.  Nosema ceranae may be a new,
and a primary, pathogen, but we had strong clues from Spain, and there was
pretty interesting observations which could support Koch’s postulates,
when boxes from colonies that collapsed did not cause collapse when they
were fumigated with acetic acid. There is not yet a cure for these
virsues, so beyond limiting their opportunism, never mind it – that is,
don’t put off doing what you can do, because it is extraordinarily
inconvenient, while awaiting a silver bullet.

From other threads I have seen comments on the condition of hives that are
moved extensively. Cripes, they are stressed and starving! You don’t need
to invent a new disease to explain the losses. It is absolutely likely the
way beef calves were managed in Canada years ago that resulted in such
huge losses as to sometimes make the business model unsustainable. Calves
were pulled off their Mothers on the Prairies, loaded into a rail car,
shipped with no food or water for a few days to Ontario, mixed with
others, tossed onto grass and then to a feed lot, developed shipping
fever, then dropped dead. It wasn’t unusual for some to be dead or darn
sick before arrival. The response was to manage them better - experiment
with pre-conditioning before moving, care for them better during the move,
targeted pathogen management AS A TOOL BUT NOT A TOTAL SOLUTION, and
ultimately to change the way they are managed and grown out to limit
disease and losses.

I recently saw a thread which included the comment about maybe selecting
queens that would throw bees that are more resistant to chemical
treatments!! Sorry if I am taking that out of context, but what kind of
madness is that?!! You know, if it hurts when you clobber yourself with a
fry pan, you can hope it will magically go away, you can look for some
other reason for the pain other than the obvious, you can make a helmet
that will soften the blow, use ear plugs to deaden the noise, but sooner
or later you will still get a headache! So if that hurts, stop doing it.

I’m not saying to immediately give up the business, or not look for new
knowledge from the researchers. But the questions that researchers are
exploring need to be directed from the industry (which includes all in the
value chain) and need to be those which are part of a sustainable business
model and that deliver information that is actionable against that model.
The rest is academic masturbation.  A balance of research on pathogens and
management needs to be there. But we all know that an unsustainable
business (or research)  model eventually will come back and bite you.
Plenty of evidence for that in the news every day!

In the example of shipping fever, yes, ultimately the solutions changed
the business for Ontario feedlots, but that is just the way it had to be.
The changes involved the value chain from cow calf man out west, the
grower, packer and consumer. Everyone had to alter expectations about what
they had to put in and could get out from a SUSTAINABLE model.

So in the interest of progressive debate, and my own education, please
tell me where I am crazy. And as disclosure, yes,I have been clobbered
with losses myself, but on humiliating analysis, I see I did not do what I
already knew about for feeding, surveillance,treatment timing and winter
preparation.I might still have been hit hard, we had 2 unfortunate
winters, but until I start doing the things I know I should, I cant gripe
about it.

Greg Hawkins
Rockwood, ON Canada

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