aaron, you are correct, the ccd working group is not the ccd police, and they have no authority to stop shipments.
...i also understand that "blowing the whistle" on specific producers, or on producers in general for possibly shipping "possibly infected/affected bees" would make it harder to get information in the future.
...i also understnad that "a critical time" doesn't mean just prior to shipping, or that it means that bees from infected yards/operations/strains were shipped. but "a critical time" means something...and at this point i think it's only jerry that could clarify if he cares to.
...all this is true. yet, if the team is being funded by the us army and individuals (as well as beealert technologies). and the team has identified below what they are looking at currently as the most likely causes. all of these problems can "be shipped with bees", and many of them have potential to spread to other colonies, it seems to me that:
"Regularly distribute summary reports to the bee keeping community"
would imply that possible sources of contamination would be reported. and, imho, what jerry posted is provacative enough that he should clarify what was observed and when.
i suppose i can't speak for the army, or for my local bee club for that matter. but to me, i expect that publicly funded research will always have an eye on the public good.
now, i'll admit that personally, i subscribe to the concept that ccd is the same thing seen many times in the past, and it will disapear again before a cause is found...and perhaps the cause is some long term cycle.
...but these researchers in the ccd working group think there is a problem. the producers in question saw enough of a problem to call in the researchers, and the researchers thought it was significant enough that they needed to make an onsite visit to see and sample. ..and the researchers think this is important enough to the industry that the army, clubs, and individuals should contribute financially. if they aren't going to report that package and queen producers are shipping "affected" (if not "infected") bees (if in fact they witnessed this....that remains to be seen), then, imho, they are not doing what they have set out to do:
“Exploring the cause or causes of honey bee
colony collapse and finding appropriate strategies to reduce colony loss in the future”.
not shipping affected bees seems to me to be an obvious first step to accomplish the above...at least until a non-contagious cause is identified.
i really don't want to come off as confrontational, and it is not my intention to create enemies....but this is important stuff, and seems obvious to me.
deknow
The current
research priorities under investigation by various members of the CCD working group, as
well as other cooperators include, but is not limited to:
• Chemical residue/contamination in the wax, food stores and bees
• Known and unknown pathogens in the bees and brood
• Parasite load in the bees and brood
• Nutritional fitness of the adult bees
• Level of stress in adult bees as indicated by stress induced proteins
• Lack of genetic diversity and lineage of bees
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