The contagious nature of CCD is reflected in new research:

> 65 incoming honey bee pollen foragers were randomly collected from the landing board at the entrance of the five hives in two different locations (24 km apart) in Centre County, Pennsylvania during the summer of 2007.  Both apiaries were free from any CCD symptoms and all hives appeared to be normal and highly productive, with many individuals and with most cells in the brood nest filled with either larvae or pupae (indicative of a healthy colony and queen). During the same time period other non-Apis hymenopteran species were collected using sweep nets from flowering plants near these apiaries. Non-Apis hymenopterans were also collected near apiaries harboring IAPV-infected honey bees and with a known history of CCD in Pennsylvania and New York.

> Importantly, IAPV was detected only in non-Apis hymenopteran pollinators collected near IAPV-infected apiaries in New York and Pennsylvania. None of the non-Apis hymenopteran pollinators collected from flowering plants around State College, Pennsylvania, where IAPV was not detected in 2007 in honey bees, tested positive for this virus. IAPV may be spreading into non-Apis hymenopteran pollinators from honey bees. Alternatively, this virus may have spilled over from some wild species, which may be serving as the reservoir host for this virus, into honey bees.

Citation: Singh R, Levitt AL, Rajotte EG, Holmes EC, Ostiguy N, et al. (2010) RNA Viruses in Hymenopteran Pollinators: Evidence of Inter-Taxa Virus Transmission via Pollen and Potential Impact on Non-Apis Hymenopteran Species. PLoS ONE 5(12): e14357. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014357

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm