>>Lipkin ... found that seemingly healthy Australian bees were
infected with the virus and ... all of the CCD hives they
examined included or spent time near imported Australian bees.

Sounds like there may be a level of IAPV tolerance in the Australian bees in the US [probably obtained after years of exposure & selection in Australia]?

I found interesting the reports that in Canada, despite years of Australian imports, CCD is much lesser than in the US.  Makes me think that the commercial Canadians practice their beekeeping sufficiently different from our so that their *less stressed* bees are able to take the virus better.  Stress in humans causes a drop in the presence of natural killer cells that eliminate a lot of viruses and tumors.  A similar event could be happening in bees.

The above is based on my speculation that there may be something to this IAPV thing.  I tend to think like Pettis that CCD is multi-factorial.

Waldemar

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