Hello all,

Recent discussion in Bee-L has referred to the 'Varroa Calculator'
developed by the CSL National Bee Unit in the UK. I forwarded this to
Medwin Bew, head of the Unit (who does not subscribe to Bee-L) and his
comments are as follow:


Joe Hemmens posting on BEE-L of the 07/09/00 about the MAFF varroa
calculator deserves a reply.

Firstly, though, I should mention that the 'calculator' research was
actually mostly funded by MAFF with a very welcome contribution from the
British Beekeepers' Association - just to put the record straight. It
was not funded by beekeepers alone by any means. Secondly, The
calculator was indeed a spin off from the main research that added a
great deal of valuable information about varroa for scientists to use.
But it was not a sop to beekeepers. It was an attempt to try and feed
back some direct practical benefit to industry as a 'thank you'. We made
quite clear that it came with deficiencies.

We do actually appreciate people such as Joe testing out the calculator
in the field. There is also only so much research people can do in a
field project and the data produced in ours certainly benefits from
further, practical application by beekeepers.

Earlier this year we reviewed Dr Martin's computer model that sits
behind the calculator. CSL's Dr Graham Smith and David Wilkinson (a bee
biologist and beekeeper and former member of the National Bee Unit),
both professional mathematical modellers, have now produced a completely
new model based on the field data gathered by Dr Martin and other
scientists. It also now includes much more robust colony data amongst
other things. The difference is that this new version is much more
interactive and sensitive to individual changes (e.g., such as colony
size, length of season). It is shortly to go for publication in a
scientific journal after peer review.

Our aim for the new model is to make it available on the internet in the
next few months. Beekeepers and researchers will be able to plug in
specific data according to their own circumstances and use it for their
own studies and observations. The help of Joe and other beekeepers in
further improving the data sets that make up the model will also be
invaluable to us for making still further refinements. If Joe would like
more information or eventually would like to contribute to refining the
model we would be very pleased to hear from him.

Medwin Bew
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James Morton                    'Geertje', Canal Lock 92,
S.E Regional Bee Inspector      Windmill Lane, Norwood Green,
CSL National Bee Unit           Middlesex, UB2 4NH
Tel/fax: 0208 571 6450          e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Mobile:  07720 833571           http://www.csl.gov.uk
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