>
> >Randy, if we are going to have a reasonable conversation about targeted
> synthetic dsRNA


You are using the wrong words, Dean.  The dsRNA is an exact copy of natural
dsRNA.  And it does not "target" anything, it simply offers a natural
template to the bee, so that the bee can initiate its own natural acquired
immunity, via RISC.

>, I think you are going to have to define "natural" for us...the way you
> use it here (and later in the same post) seems an attempt (at least from
> here) to make it seem like it is just business as usual


I think that you are starting to get it!  Yes, business as usual!


> >...this is new and powerful technology.


Yes, just like Edward Jenner's application of cowpox to a scratch in the
skin to elicit the natural production of antibodies to smallpox in humans.
 New and powerful!

>
> >When bees receive Remebee against specific virus strains, it is to induce
> acquired immunity--a natural process.
> >To me, this implies that this would happen in nature...that the bees
> would encounter a high concentration of exactly the dsRNA required exactly
> when it is required in order to stop a new (or old) disease in the
> commercial and hobby beekeeping population, nearly simultaneously..
>

Hey, you ARE getting it!  Except, the bees don't "encounter a high
concentration of dsRNA"--they produce it themselves when exposed to the
first virus strands that attempt to replicate.  Have you read my articles
on the subject in ABJ or at my website?  It would help a great deal!

>.that the immunity would be acquired without any appreciable impact from
disease?

Immunity was acquired by a very few hives in the control group in my Calif
trials.  All the rest died.  That is the natural process.  So I would call
that an appreciable impact from the disease.

>
> >Is there any treatment, drug, tool, or fix that humans haven't proven
> incapable of not using "excessively"?  If there are negative effects for
> irresponsible use, they should be considered as inevitable rather than
> improbable.
>

I'm not my brother's keeper.  If a beekeeper wants to be stupid and kill
his bees, that's not my problem.  Look at the difference, Dean, between the
titles of our respective publications--your target audience purchases The
Complete Beekeepers Guide for Idiots; my audience reads Scientific
Beekeeping.  That probably says something...

In any case, overdosing with Remebee doesn't appear to harm the bees, it is
simply a waste of money.

>As far as I know, there are no studies on bees (or on anything else) that
> show any kind of vaccine will, over time, allow a population to become
> resistant to the target disease


Dean, this is getting tiresome.  Haven't you watched colonies come down
with serious virus infections, and then completely recover?  Happens all
the time!  And happened in the Remebee trials long after we stopped feeding
Remebee.
-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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