Randy said: 
 
 
<Higes saw actual IIV-like virions under electron
microscopy in  one of his samples. (in Spain)> 
 
 
Randy, don't forget, Scott Camazine found IIV virions in varroa mites in  
the USA in his investigation of a big bee crash in the NE in the 90s, and he  
published his finding of IIV. 
 
Camazine was well familiar with IIV, he found, extracted, and sequenced  
Kashmir in a sample of IIV.  So IIV has been verified in varroa mites in  the 
US, so no reason to think it wouldn't show up in analysis of bees.
 
We also received several reports of iridescent brood in honey bee colonies  
in the USA, but everyone thought about seeing this or about getting a 
report  (some other researchers) before our paper appeared, so no one thought it  
was more than a curiousity and didn't take or keep any samples.  Then  
they'd call and apologize to us for not sending or reporting.  So, we're  still 
interested - watch for bluish, greenish, purplish larvae/pupae.  If  you get 
any, freeze as soon as possible and send me an e-mail.
 
Our rebuttal addresses the failure of others to find IIV, not that hard to  
understand if you understand the short-comings in their own methods.  None  
of these methods is perfect, they're all subject to shortcomings, and the  
equipment is expensive and both software and instruments improve with  time. 
 Army just happened to have better tools.
 
Our proteins and peptides are a matter of record.  It took me 8 hrs to  
upload to Trance.  Anyone analyzing bees and seeing something similar can  go 
back and look, maybe some day we'll get a full sequence courtesy of  someone 
else, and a name on it.  (Army did the work for  free)
 
Frankly, its a matter of Nosema plus viruses that's important to  
beekeepers.  The is it, is it not IIV, detracts from the core  finding.
 
Our paper clearly states we found Nosema and vrisues, with lots of proteins 
 from an IIV-like virus - but not that we had identified presence of a 
known  IIV - our best fit was ~ 65% IIV-6 proteins.  
 
Also, 71,000 downloads, and a hand-full of people have argued against our  
paper. 
 
Enough prattling, time will tell.  Jerry  
 
 
 
 
 

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