Hello John,
Always amazes me when such important research is dropped. Research in the 
U.S. is fueled by companies wanting to make a buck on beekeepers. 

Research on virus and on comb contamination sparks little interest at the 
bee labs. The labs do not even want to test our brood comb for 
contamination even though our tax dollars bought the mass spec machines. 

Wax contamination from years of using legal chemical strips (they 
recommended) and virus spore problems from failed controls IS the number 
one & two problems facing the larger beekeepers today.

Comb replacement is the only solution but if the labs can not tell the 
beekeeper when the time to replace is then most commercial beekeepers are 
in the dark.

The bee labs need to set up a department which can evaluate comb samples 
for chemical levels and for virus spore levels and which viruses. 

Beltsville tossed my last samples sent from commercial beekeepers for 
amount of wax contamination.

Brenda Ball was taking U.S. samples and reporting virus levels and which 
viruses were present. I guess we will not be able to get wax tested in the 
U.K. now.

Beltsville recommended private testing to me. Do beekeepers on BEE-L know 
of a private lab doing testing? have you had wax tested? If so what were 
the costs and turn around time?

Are other beekeepers looking into brood comb chemical contamination as the 
root of some commercial beekeepers problems? 

Are others seeing packages hived on comb from hives which crashed from 
varroa ( showing PMS signs) crash again within a few months with a varroa 
load not considered high ( such as P O said he is seeing)?

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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