On Thu, 28 Mar 1996, Andy Nachbaur wrote:
 
> *FYI*
>
> Last Official USDA Word on Kashmir bee virus in the US, (that I
> could find), minus any data from Hawaii as it may not have been included
> in this round of tests...in 1993. Have no idea if this is the same as
> the INDIAN BEE Virus that is claimed to be the cause of horrendous
> losses of hive and native bees in large parts of India. But it matters
> not because most of these virus have the ability to change and become
> very virulent without any help from man or bees'tees. And for sure
> except for trying to determine if they are abundant in US bees they have
> received little study here, and I fear will not receive a great deal of
> attention in the near future because of the cost considerations.
>
> Beekeepers may have to treat virus tainted bees or beekeeping
> operations with a history of unexplained loss, the same as we treat AID's
> patents. Give them the best care for the symptoms that are treatable. If
> the beehive itself is the unit of husbandry then that beehive may need
> to have a secondary unit, a nuc, available each season to maintain
> itself even with the best diet, chemical treatment, and TLC by the
> keeper of the bees. At least those beekeeper's who are doing this now
> appear to be maintaining productive hives.
>
>                        >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 09/19/94                 Agricultural Research Service
> Page     8 2
>                  Technology Transfer Automated Retrieval System
>                                  (ARS TEKTRAN)
> Title:SURVEY FOR KASHMIR BEE VIRUS IN HONEY BEE COLONIES IN THE UNITED
> STATES
>
> BRUCE  WILLIAM A
> ANDERSON  D
> CALDERONE  N W
> SHIMANUKI  H
> Technical Abstract:
>
> A survey for Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV) in honey bee (Apis mellifera L)
> colonies in the United States is reported.  Samples consisting of 300
> worker bees were collected from one hived colony in each of 10 different
> apiaries in California, Flordia, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and
> Washington.  Extracts were obtained from each and injected into groups of
> normal healthy white-eyed honey bee pupae to increase to detectable
> concentrations any viruses that may have been present in the extracts in
> small concentrations.  Extracts were subsequently obtained from each
> injected pupa and tested for the presence of KBV and other virus particles
> in serological tests. KBV was found to be present in each of the seven
> States sampled.
> Submitted to:                                             (approved 08/04/93)
>
  Hello ,  Part of my learning curve over the last few months has been
seeing behavior change in the way bees die out do to Varroa. Some you
treat with still a big population of bees and they act normal for a weeh
or so and then they die off in 3 to 5 days.By using E-mail after I read
what I could out of Honey Bee Patholigy. It looked like a Virus problem.
I have contacted the people who have the greatest amount of knowledge on
bee viruses. Some of my bees will be checked.It cost a lot of money to
work on viruses. Even the testing itself.One of the reasons I was showing
a great deal of concern with Varroa. Was the fact that Varroa has been
found to spread 3 viruses.You can see by the info above that the word if
we have has been lost. We have some and as stated above we have to watch
our bees very close and keep them as heathy as we can.Healthy bees
without Varroa will have a much better chance of staying safe.
 I wish we could get one of the experts to post more info for us on Viruses.
 Thank You
Roy