I read it, barely understood 10% of it, but got the gist of it. It appears
interesting and promising, but it does require feeding the bees a substance
with a genetically modified gene silencing mechanism. The testing seemed to
be well done but I have some questions about the 250 bee mini-hives. I also
think that some longer tests may be required to ensure no long term effects
- for example, how long after the initial feeding does the gene silencing
mechanism still appear in the bees and mites? I was impressed that the
testing including determining how long before the substances degrade, but
then I am not involved with studies like this and maybe this is normal. I
think that further testing under a variety of environmental conditions,
such as temperatures, as well as hive strength and mite loading is
required. Would the same results occur with a larger population of bees?

One good point was that the authors did not expect to eliminate the mite,
merely cut the population down significantly.

And feeding the bees a genetically modified substance? How would that play
in Europe?

Would the mechanism end up in the honey as well? I didn't see any tests for
that, but by page 4, my head was spinning.

Would the introduction of a GE substance turn the public off? Would it
affect the ability to certify a honey as organic (I'm not into the GMO or
organic issue, just wondering.

Howard in Hawaii

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