Here is an item of interest re tracheal mites (or lack thereof) in Austria.
It really surprised me that no tracheal mites were found in any of the 209
samples (from all over the country, from sick colonies).  Compare this to
the high prevalence of TM in the U.S. that Allen posted.

"From late December 2003 to early April 2004 we received various samples of
colonies with winter damage. The beekeepers described bee colonies getting
weaker and weaker, colony losses or bees with unusual behaviour, like flying
out at low temperatures (e.g. -10°C), black bees being attacked by others,
crawling bees and shivering bees.

"Nosema was detected in only 24 (11%) out of 209 samples,
malpighamoeba in just 9 specimens (4%), and Acarapis [tracheal mite]
was not detected at all (0%).

"DWV was identified in all samples, and ABPV in nearly all (95%)"

From
Prevalence of six honey bee viruses in Austrian bee colonies with disease
symptoms
Hemma Köglberger1, Irmgard Derakhshifar1, Olga Berényi², Tamás Bakonyi2,3,
and Norbert Nowotny2,4

Randy Oliver

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