Pete said:  "The most significant problem in honey bee colonies, as in most eukaryotes, is viruses. People are living longer than ever today, despite the ubiquitous use of environmental chemicals."

Pete, I know you identify closely with your bees, but bees are NOT living longer than ever today. So making that comparison to humans doesn't compute. Several papers are now out showing that bee viruses are more virulent where environmental chemicals like pesticides, fungicides, etc are also present. What we now need to know is what levels of these chemicals cause that heightened susceptibility to viruses among the bees. Presumably, there is a threshold below which the damage isn't significant.

Christina



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