Norman Carreck wrote in December of 2007:

> Although large numbers of mites are apparently required to produce an initial virus infection, once established it can apparently persist in the absence of the mite. This should not surprise us. After all, there must be a natural means of transmission from bee to bee, otherwise KBV would not be as common in Varroa-free Australia as it is.

>  It remains clear that our understanding of the world distribution and taxonomy of honey bee viruses, and the relation between recent information obtained from molecular techniques and earlier information using serological techniques is currently far too fragmentary to allow us to point a finger at the definitive cause of colony losses.

-- 
BBKA News - December 2007

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