Allen said:
> This was a hot topic back in 1998.
>
> http://www.honeybeeworld.com/misc/kashmir.htm

Thanks for the post Allen. The post contained what I was looking for 
concerning an ongoing discussion off list.

from the above site:
9/19/94
7 of the largest beekeeping states were sampled and KBV virus was found in 
samples from all the states which confirmed the presence of KBV in U.S. 
bees.

Bob Harrison comments:
i have a very good memory so will try and remember what was going on at the 
time. I was president of the Midwestern Beekeepers association and varroa 
was big on our minds. Apistan was starting to fail in many areas of the U.S. 
(but not in the Midwest as we would not see Apistan quit working until fall 
of 95).
Many of us had not started to migrate into almonds yet as almond pollination 
prices back then were less than forty dollars a hive. Most out of state 
doing almonds went as an alternative to Texas but most doing almonds said 
they actually lost money. An article in ABJ around the period of a large 
operator  said he lost money doing almonds. His article actually caused the 
almond growers to offer a 10 dollar increase the next season to try and get 
Midwest beeks to come looking for California almond gold.

Back to 1994 .

The beeks doing almonds were reporting new issues with their bees after 
returning. Fluvalinate resistant mites etc. A couple years later most beeks 
coming in contact with the California almond bees were having problems. KBV 
was *suspect* but the USDA-ARS claimed KBV was not in the U.S. .

It took Denis Anderson ( Australia and the virus researcher which discovered 
and named Varroa destructor) to come to the U.S. and find KBV in U.S. bees. 
Although I am a huge fan of Dr Shiminuki
(Although we did not always agree on all issues) I will say he was a bit at 
a loss for words when Denis found KBV in all the states sampled.

After the Anderson visit is when (if I remember correctly) Dr. Shiminuki 
named Parasitic Mite Syndrome (PMS).  All of us on the varroa front lines 
had been seeing PMS from the start but now we had a name (although we all 
laughed a bit about the name as our wives would sit around in their circles 
while the men sat around at meetings talking about our PMS problems. In 
other words female PMS and beekeeper PMS. Same name but different issue!

So KBV was even a hot topic in 1993-1994 in the U.S.

bob 

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