Allen said:
> This was a hot topic back in 1998.
>
> http://www.honeybeeworld.com/misc/kashmir.htm
Thanks for the post Allen. The post contained what I was looking for
concerning an ongoing discussion off list.
from the above site:
9/19/94
7 of the largest beekeeping states were sampled and KBV virus was found in
samples from all the states which confirmed the presence of KBV in U.S.
bees.
Bob Harrison comments:
i have a very good memory so will try and remember what was going on at the
time. I was president of the Midwestern Beekeepers association and varroa
was big on our minds. Apistan was starting to fail in many areas of the U.S.
(but not in the Midwest as we would not see Apistan quit working until fall
of 95).
Many of us had not started to migrate into almonds yet as almond pollination
prices back then were less than forty dollars a hive. Most out of state
doing almonds went as an alternative to Texas but most doing almonds said
they actually lost money. An article in ABJ around the period of a large
operator said he lost money doing almonds. His article actually caused the
almond growers to offer a 10 dollar increase the next season to try and get
Midwest beeks to come looking for California almond gold.
Back to 1994 .
The beeks doing almonds were reporting new issues with their bees after
returning. Fluvalinate resistant mites etc. A couple years later most beeks
coming in contact with the California almond bees were having problems. KBV
was *suspect* but the USDA-ARS claimed KBV was not in the U.S. .
It took Denis Anderson ( Australia and the virus researcher which discovered
and named Varroa destructor) to come to the U.S. and find KBV in U.S. bees.
Although I am a huge fan of Dr Shiminuki
(Although we did not always agree on all issues) I will say he was a bit at
a loss for words when Denis found KBV in all the states sampled.
After the Anderson visit is when (if I remember correctly) Dr. Shiminuki
named Parasitic Mite Syndrome (PMS). All of us on the varroa front lines
had been seeing PMS from the start but now we had a name (although we all
laughed a bit about the name as our wives would sit around in their circles
while the men sat around at meetings talking about our PMS problems. In
other words female PMS and beekeeper PMS. Same name but different issue!
So KBV was even a hot topic in 1993-1994 in the U.S.
bob
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