Could > there have been a possibility of infection by border crossing bees? We will never know and as David said matters little now. What we do know now and and was the position I took back in 06 is that the problem (CCD?) does not spread *quickly* through areas. Nosema ceranae takes time to end up in 100% of samples. my guess would be two years. Kashmir bee virus (KBV)takes time to end up in 100% of samples. I speak with beeks today which are seeing virus & nosema issues for the first time and always only in a few hives. Left alone *in my opinion* both can spread through the yard. *in my opinion* what we saw in Hack's bees was the *end* phase of a nosema ceranae event combined with advanced parasitic mite syndrome (PMS) which *involved* KBV (instead of the normal virus associated with PMS ). I saw the above as soon as I read the test results. As did Danny Weaver and others and we discussed the point of view at national meetings. However *for whatever reasons* the CCD working group chose to say what was happening was a new yet undiscovered problem. Send money! Lots of money! WMD (Iraq war) and CCD ( beekeeping) are similar *in my opinion* as certain people were positive both were there but now we need to move on and admit *most likely* CCD was only what it appeared to be at the start. I try to keep an open mind but so far no research done on CCD has changed my mind! Nosema ceranae & KBV problems can be fixed. bob *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm