At 17/09/01 14:19:00, Clay wrote:
>I see SMR as trying to swim up a water fall,
>totally unnatural and impossible to
>maintain in the long run (I could be wrong).

Hi Clay

For what its worth, i think the "SMR" trait is both natural and inevitable, and would be a lot
further along by now without human interferance.

I am continually bemused that genetic variation leading to eventual resistance is taken
as fact when it comes to the mites overcoming our poisons - yet the same process is
unacknowledged for the bees to get used to their  problem (mites) without our 'help'.

Our continual use of poison to prop up our bees means that any survivor genes out
there are swamped by susceptible human-assisted genes, and thereby not positively
selected for - the natural concentration and relative inbreeding that would reinforce the
trait if only other survivor genes were about, doesn't happen, and we see this as proof
that the bees NEED our help.

Instead (and this is the funny part of this tragi-comedy), a few good scientists identify
those bees with NATURALLY OCCURING survivor traits, and artificially inbreed them to
concentrate/attempt to fix the trait - and then the bee-world is very impressed with such
an amazing feat, especially when this NATURALLY OCCURING trait is given an official
techno-industry tag (SMR).  If it comes via SCIENCE (our new religion, after money),
then it MUST be the genuine article!

However, while we continue to pollute the open-mating pool with poison-propped
drones, then it will indeed be an uphill battle to get those Essemar genes to spread wide
in the real world - with miticides, we are removing/lessening the selection pressure that
would favour mite-resistant bees.

Small-cell on the other hand, has NOT been PROVEN  by science, therefore it can't be
genuine.  Of course, science has yet to prove via peer-reviewed research that i actually
woke-up this morning, so maybe this email didn't actually get written...

-Pav, thinking maybe the Salmon haven't heard that what they're doing is impossible
and unnatural...


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