All those studies on fomite transmission are on hold during Covid I'm afraid. We've done quite a few already. They need to be properly controlled to be meaningful - for example, there may be infectious virus still present but, under laboratory conditions of crowding/feeding or whatever, the bees might not get infected with it. You therefore need to look at virus survival per se, and separately whether the bees can acquire it from fomites.
I'm not sure if anyone has ever routinely screened (in molecular terms i.e. PCR) those black, hairless singletons you often see in the colony. I see them as well - often earlyish in the season - and also usually describe them as ageing overwintered workers. Very few colonies are virus positive without overt symptoms.
Cheers
David
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Ardnamurchan and Fife, Scotland
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