Bee World, a journal of the non-profit organisation the International Bee
Research Association, recently contained an article entitled 'The
incidence and world distribution of honey bee viruses' (77(3): 141-162;
1996).  The authors were Mark Allen and Brenda Ball of Rothamsted
Research Station in the UK.
 
Kashmir bee virus has been reported from Apis cerana from India and
Papua New Guinea, and from Apis mellifera from Australia, Papua New
Guinea, Fiji, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Canada, the USA and
Spain.
 
About Kashmir bee virus the authors of this article say "subsequent
surveys and infectivity tests (in Australia) confirmed that it was common
there both as inapparent and overt infections; up to 40% of health pupae
were inapparently infected with KBV but the percentage of infection
varied from year to year.  Strains of KBV were also detected in both A.
mellifera and A. cerana from other countries in Australasia, and for many
years it was thought that the virus was present only in bees from this
region.  More recently, strains of KBV have been isolated from dead,
field-collected adult bees from Canada, the USA and Spain, and infectivity
tests on adult bees in the USA show that KBV is a widespread
inapparent infection."
 
This article, which is heavily referenced, and other information on KBV is
available from the International Bee Research Association:
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Andrew