From: Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>

>OK. How would you summarize it, and what do you think of the conclusions?

I'll post what I think of the conclusions...perhaps you would like to summarize the study?

In this case, the conclusion section of the study is quite short and easy to comment on.

"This study provides evidence that Varroa destructor is a key player for winter colony losses...."

....seems a bit obvious to me...even those of us that don't treat for varroa or do counts know that a a high varroa load going into winter is deadly.  Our bees have mites (like everyone's bees), but they don't all die over the winter.

"...and highlights the urgent need for efficient treatments against this parasite."

If your bees have a heavy mite load going into winter they will probably die without treatment.  I don't know what is meant by "efficient" here......easy?  cheap?  effective?  ...all of this will clearly lead to bees that are less able to handle varroa, and varroa that are more able to handle bees.  There are also other ways to mitigate the damage that varroa does to susceptable populations other than treatments...aggressive splitting comes to mind immediately (although not ideal).

"The data suggest an indirect effect of mite infestation on honeybee overwintering abilities through the promotion of opportunistic viral infections, which eventually lead to the impairment of critical physiological functions."

I'm not sure this is news to anyone reading this.  Once we get to a point where clinical symptoms of DWV are significant, it's a pretty good bet that the bees are pretty well infested with varroa.  I'm not sure what the above passage adds to common beekeeper knowledge.

"The knowledge gathered in this work will help to improve our understanding of bee losses, standardize methods for biomarkers of disease and finally to mitigate causes of bee declines."

I'm not sure I agree with any of the above.  What understanding is improved?  What are we going to look at as a biomarkers that we didn't look at before?  How does this study lead to mitigation of bee declines? ...buy telling us that varroa kills bees (directly or indirectly)?

...but what is more interesting (and isn't in the conclusion) is this:

"3. Nosema ceranae titers are higher in healthy colonies"

deknow

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