> A point made but missed in the TM resistant AFB discussion, is that
> evolution ("survival of the fittest") IS alive and well, or as P-O
> Guftafsson wrote, "The natural selection that was first showed by Darwin
> is still valid."  Yes, this is true, but the statement, "By feeding
> drugs this mechanism is set aside, and the natural control of the
> disease destroyed" is flawed.
 
<snip>
I'm not sure the point was missed, but maybe natural selection was
overly discounted in consideration of how we humans (while ridden by
our parasites (see below)) muck with the process.
 
Of course you are both right -- natural selection is the central
issue, since natural selection has been the process by which the
resistant stains in question came into being.
 
<snip>
> Left to it's own devices, the bacteria that causes AFB will be optimized
> and a colony of honeybees will collapse.  Natural selection dictates
> that over time either a resistant strain of honeybee will evolve or
> the bacteria will achieve total victory and honeybees will cease to
> exist.  This didn't happen for centuries before mankind started mucking
> with the equations and it's doubtful that this will happen in the
> future.
 
This interesting because only two alternate and extreme solutions
are postulated above.  I submit there are more: without going into an
elaborate mathematical proof (of which I am probably incapable)
here's a simple intuitive proof -- a third solution -- and incidently
my favourite:
 
A *symbiotic* relationship *could* conceivably result in the fullness
of time. Some suspect that bees require some molds to prosper (this
arguement is one that makes one look twice at the use of antibiotics
in beekeeping, but all results seem to indicate that bees fed TM
often do better than those which are not.  An example of such
research is recent work by Sammatoro et al that shows that bees with
vampire mites that receive grease patties with TM do better than
those which get only grease and sugar). But I digress...
 
Perhaps such a bacterium could become part of the bees ecosystem
and become beneficial -- even essential, given long enough. Consider
the co-evolution of flowers and insects.  Consider cattle and their
rumen.  Consider legumes and their nitrogen fixing bacteria...
 
(It is even *conceivable* that diverse organisms actually merge in
some circumstances, but I imagine this will be a very controversial
idea, so we won't put any weight on this thought).
 
When you meet a fellow human on the street, you are meeting a complex
group of organisms, from the bacteria in the gut to the virus that
may at that moment control, to some measure, his brain or hormonal
system.
 
Bacteria and viruses have had an incalculable effect on the human
history of the world, from the smallpox that decimated populations in
the New World in advance of the white man to the diseases that
reportedly affected Hitler's judgement in the final years of the
second world war, to the flu that kept me from feeding my bees early
this spring and at the same time made me extremely cranky.
 
And interestingly, there is evidence that viruses can carry DNA from
host organism to host organism and thus complicate the matter of
separating host and parasite.  I have recently heard arguments that
it is viruses, not insects that are the most successful competitors
(co-operators?) with humans for domination of this planet...
 
Anyhow this is a very complex issue and any plan that reaches far
into the future is subject to incalculable factors that render the
results indeterminate.
 
IMO anyhow.
 
> Merry Christmas to all, God bless us every one!
 
Indeed, and best of the season to those members of the many diverse
ethnic and religious groups around the world that read BEE-L!
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet:[log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>