From: Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>

> Among the high number of microorganisms which are coexisting with honey bee colonies, most are opportunistic and induce troubles under as-yet undefined environmental conditions.

Really?  Martha Gilliam cataloged 8000+ different microbes coexisting with honey bee colonies.  I would be skeptical that anyone can point to "most" of those (more than 4000) and show that they "induce troubles" under any circumstance (defined or as-yet undefined).  

Can anyone name more than a dozen or two that are known to have induced problems at any time?

The interesting thing about the oppurtunistic and competitive nature of these microbes is that if any of them "wins", they destroy their own environment (the beehive).  Considering the sheer number of species and individual microbes in the hive (and in virtually any environment), microbe induced "troubles" are in fact, quite rare occurrences.

In some sense, the microbes are competitive like the members of a basketball team are competitive....the members are competing for media attention, sneaker endorsements, post retirement broadcast jobs....but if they don't function well as a team....if they don't work together on some level, the team is a loser, and there is little opportunity for any of them.

deknow

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