Sid wrote:-
 
> Hello All,   I have just been presented with two totally opposing views
> with regard to this virus.
> (1)  It is very dangerous and will result in the death of the colony.
> (2)  It is not  a serious problem and it is endemic in various parts of t=
> he
> world.
> They cannot both be right.  Has anyone personal experience of it?  I
> understand it is quite common in New Zealand.  Would anyone in that count=
> ry
> care to comment, please.
 
Let me put some facts to the list.
 
Kashmir bee virus (KBV) has never been associated with a colony death in Australia.  It can be found as an inapparent infection in bees.
 
Canada stoped importing live bees from Australia because of KBV.  This decision was reversed about 1987.  KBV was found in Canada about 4 to 5 years ago. The USA has been using the excuse of KBV to not accept live bees from Australia.  KBV has been found in the USA but it will still not accept live bees from Australia.  I wonder what excuse they are using now.
 
Hawaii claims that they do not have KBV but I am informed that there has been no disease surveys done in Hawaii and that they have, in the viruses, sacbrood but they do not know what else.  Hawaii stopped Australia from transhipping live bees through Hawaii because of viruses about 1994 which, by co-incidence, was the same time that Hawaii gained access to Canada for queen bees.
 
The United Kingdom would not accept queen bees from Australia because we had KBV but would accept them from New Zealand, which had KBV.  This situation has now changed.
 
Now for some reasoning.  I don't think that anyone would suggest that the USA and Canada did not previously have KBV until it was sudenly found.    I would suggest that it has been in those two countries for a long time prior to detection.
 
The USA had been exporting breeder queens to Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and I imagine many other countries for many years.  New Zealand stopped a while back, Australia put in place a strict quarantine protocol about 1983 and Hawaii stopped when mites were found.  I would put it to the list that it seeems reasonable to assume the viruses would have been spread around the world with these bees.
 
So unless a country does a comprehensive disease survey, they cannot say that they do not have KBV.  Australia has done this and we know what we have.
 
So Sid, I can say that KBV does not kill colonies in Australia and in my 5 years as an Apiary Inspector, I never saw any hive decline that was attributed to KBV.  KBV has basically been used as a non-tarriff barrier.
 
Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA