Hello Bob.
In respect your comments I give some explanations.

>Bob wrote
> I have spent quite a bit of time looking through my beekeeping books and
> have failed to find a virus which describes the symptom of black abdomen.
> Page 1111 of the 92 issue of "The Hive and the Honey Bee " lists many rare
> viruses and only says to see Bailey's work from 1981 for more information.
> If you are looking at a virus ( Bob putting head on chopping block to be
cut
> off by lurking researchers) in my opoinion you are looking at one of the
> rare Bailey viruses if a virus..

Bob I don't have sure if the black abdomen is viruses disease, but if it was
other agent, bacteria, fungal or protozoal I would see in the microscope. I
saw the black abdomen principally in high infested colonies. And many other
colonies presented sacbrood in so high level that some colonies perished. In
scabrood you can see black larvas. Will be that the pupa are affected too?
In  the grafiting I got many quens with deformed wing and other died in the
cupula with blackish color.

> Another possible senario is you are looking at a noninfectious disorder.
> Quote from page 1111 of the 92 edition of the "Hive and the Honey Bee" :
> " Most often dead or discollored pupae result from a nonifectious
condition.
> for a good review of nonifectious disorders of honey bees ,see Tucker
> (1978).

I read this book and I think almost remote this possibility


> I did not have much luck treating viruses with terramycin. Possibly others
> on the list have had the same success as you. Terramycin is used for  AFB
> and EFB in the U.S. and is tossed at about every disease which effects
most
> farm animals.

You may read in " Diagnosis of Honey Bee Diseases. USDA. " pages 28 give the
symptoms of Parasitic mite syndrome (PMS) and in " Control of Varroa: a
guide for New Zealand Beekeeper"  available on the net, you can have, for
me, the best collection of studies about Varroa. In the pgs 19 to 21 is
given explations about PMS either is cited the use of terramycin or/and
Apistan to resolve the problem.

Silvio
Brazil