>
> Steve said:  It may not be convenient for beekeepers,
> to put it mildly, but the natural strength of bees to resist viruses has
> grown from their periodic exposure to waves of viruses of different degrees
> of virulence throughout the millennia.  And so in a very real way the
> breeding program is more or less built in.


I'm in total agreement with you on this, Steve.  I feel that any good
breeding program should work in conjunction with the processes of natural
selection that has created the constantly evolving honey bee genome(s).
Resistance to each virus will evolve to some extent whether we promote it or
not.  Perhaps faster if we help to select.

Randy Oliver

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