> I find it interesting that Canada which has well run provincial
apiculture 
> departments can make concise assessments of the CCD situation in their

> respective provinces. This contrasts with the circus in the US where
we rely 
> on commercial interests and a yes/no survey from anyone with a hive of
bees...

Well, lacking anything even close to a complete set of state apiarists
and inspectors in every state in the USA, might it not be better to 
recognize that what resources are available are giving much of
themselves, 
without really asking anything in return?  Might one think to say
"Thanks!", 
rather than dissing those who are giving of their time and effort with 
terms like "circus" and "commercial interests"?

And yeah, it is easy to make a concise assessment of the number zero.
Its much less easy to assess non-zero integers.

Now, you might dismiss the survey work as "imaginary numbers",
but I think it is fair to at least agree that we have a more than
trivial count of cases in the USA.  The detailed data is being 
kept close to the chest to protect the privacy of those who report,
but there are some pretty significant operations that have reported,
been contacted, and have offered samples which will be the basis for
figuring out exactly what the problem is.

And no one offers the survey alone as "proof" of anything.
Everyone realizes that the data is self-reported, and has an
inherent error rate.

So what exactly is your beef here, other than a realization that
the US has starved beekeeping extension and research to the point
of not really having much of anything in the way of a "force" to
deal with something like this when it crops up?

Yes, it is a very different world in Canada.  They apparently
have universal free health care, not just for humans, but also
for bees.  Good for them!  We should do the same here, but let's
not insult what resources we do have, moreso when they volunteered
for this duty, and are under extensive fire for some apparently
sloppy work that may or may not turn out to even be correct in 
basic assumptions.

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