> Until an effective treatment can be developed, it may be prudent to eliminate infected colonies, said Colin Henderson, a faculty member at the UM College of Technology who did the statistics work related to the project. Standard quarantine practices, such as testing imported bees before they are added to colonies and disinfection of equipment, also likely would help.

Hmm. Kill off what's left of the bees, and replace them with -- what? Not imported bees. That's already off the table. And I love the bit about "standard quarantine practices". What standard practices might those be? Halting interstate transportation of hives, prior to the almond pollination? Quarantines have never contained bee pests, in any case. Also, identifying this new virus will probably cost $40 per sample. And, how are we supposed to "disinfect" our equipment? Seems to me that the above paragraph would have been better left unprinted, as it contains little actual help. We beekeepers have been dealing with viral diseases for decades and nobody has ever come up with a plan to get rid of them, aside from controlling the vectors, which he doesn't mention.

PLB

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