On Fri, 29 Mar 1996, <Larry Connor> wrote:
> Dear All --
> I would hope that we would be able to deal with the facts of all issues and
> not emotion, speculation and overactive imagination. While I have tried to
> read objectively about the Virus issue, I become very concerned when
> individuals tie a few facts with offhand observations and reach strong
> conclusions. This is a scientific forum, not a legal battle.
> Let's try to agree that there is far more to learn about bee viruses than we
> currently know, that there are too few people researching bee viruses, and
> that we need more bee virus research, not less.
To Larry and All , I agree that emotions have to be under control and
facts have to be used to get the answers thru scientific reseach.
What I have found thru about 8 PhD's is, we do have some knowlege of
bee viruses and an antiserum for one virus.
Why I started the hunt to get an answer about a new behavior in my bees.
I had Varroa and I treated with apistan strips. Some of the hives , I was
just too late. But about 60 had good populations in them and were getting
ready for winter. I keep a running log on my hives , so I know when I
looked them last and how manys frames of bees that I had at that time of
the inspection. After 2 weeks , I did some checks on the hives for Varroa
with an either roll.The 30 hives that had Varroa the most to start with ,
were all checked. I had a couple that I found 2 or 3 mites in 50 + bees.
I thought that it looked pretty good for the 60 hives that I had left.
Some of them started to go down hill slow. So I was watching this very
closely. Then I saw something that caught me by suprise , I had a hive
with a 12 inch cluster of bees die out in 3 to 4 days.They droped to the
bottem of the hive and some were still on the frame. Why did one go down
so fast. I did not see any indication of poison , because I had no new
losses with the other hives with bees dead out in front.
I E-mailed Dr Mike Burgett at Oregon State U. He has been doing studies
on our losses up in the NW for the last 5 + years.He sent me a E-mail
from Thialand where he was at the time. He told me to get in touch with
Dr Peng at UC Davis , who Mike thought was working with Viruses. Dr Peng
is waiting for a grant to study the viruses that have come up.Rememmber
in 1993 all 10 states checked for virus came up positive. Dr. Peng told
me to contact Dr. Welsh in Ontario canada , which I did. She is the one
that came up with the antiserum for one virus. She told me how difficult
it was to run test for viruses. But wanted me to send her a sample of my
bees.She will do part of the work in Canada and then send the material
over to Dr. Ball in the Uk. I was given information that some viruses
will drop a hive down in 3 days. In the book Honey Bee Pathology by
Bailey and Ball there is some info on how some viruses affect the bees.In
the book also it states that Varroa has spred 3 viruses that the
reseachers knew of in 1991. Dr Welsh told me to add another virus to the
list since the book was published. This sudden death of the hive did
point to another pathogen besides Varroa. Varroa can bring down a hive
very fast under stress. In my case I did not stress the hive myself any
more than the rest of them.
The problem with two pathogens is who is doing the most damage. No
answer. That needs to be answered.We do need more research on Viruses.
Not to get overly emotional here, but viruses change and sitting back too
long could be a rerun of what we did in the USA with Aids. Nothing until
some of the people that we knew were getting it and the research
started.Fact , we have Bee Viruses in the US and Canada.We need to keep
our eyes open to behavior change in our bees. We don't need to get overly
emotional , but we do need to help get good info to our researchers and
get them what they need to help the bee and us. The beekeepers on this
list are here to learn and teach. We have to use this machine to find out
facts and you can send people E-mail to get help.We do have a wonderful
research community all around the world.They have dedicated there lives
to learning more about are bees and ways to help them.As beekeepers we
need to work with them to help ourselves. I have been very up lifted over
the last couple of days , with the USDA. I would like to have them give
us some information on what they are doing. Belive me , we can do a lot
more for each other if we work together. I just put a bunch of words
down. The bottem line is not words , its work. I see my bees flying by my
window so I better get up and check the temperature and see what hives
are flying now.
Thank You Very much for your time
Roy
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