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Subject:
Re: The problem with Apis cerana
From:
Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:11:12 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
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On Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:26:09 -0600, Bob Harrison
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>>Through millions of years of being parasitized by the mite, the bees appear
>>to have developed some degree of resistance to its attacks.
>
>This statement is pure BS.
>
>Varroa jacobsoni was first noticed and discovered in 1904 so to say V.J has
>been a parasite of cerana for MILLIONS  of years is a big leap.

You're joking, right? Louis Pasteur discovered heating milk killed
disease causing bacteria in the 1860s but we don't suppose there
weren't bacteria before that. The estimated age of bacteria is in the
billions of years.

Anderson writes
> The extent of genetic variation that has been uncovered among V. jacobsoni infesting A. cerana in Asia is remarkable, and probably reflects a long period of co-evolution between the mite and the bee.

-- 
Peter L Borst
Danby, NY  USA
www.people.cornell.edu/pages/plb6

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