Yuki Metreaud writes:

    <<Even before large scale modern commercial beekeeping
operations have cropped up, honeybees have lived with pest as have all
living organisms.  The only way that they have survived to this day is
by being naturally selected for by the harsh laws of nature.  In many
ways I believe that modern beekeeping with its severe emphasis on
production and capital has done Apis a bad turn.  We have bred the
honeybee for specific traits and left them vulnerable to diseases.  This

is a phenomenon that is commonly seen with agriculture and livestock
breeding.>>

    I'm sure this is correct; the common pattern with diseases is that they
are highly virulent at first; the most susceptible stocks are wiped out,
along with the most virulent strains (which annihilate their hosts and thus
fail to survive), and the end result is equilibrium. A perfect example would
be Myxamotosis in British rabbits; when it was introduced (1950's?) it wiped
out the vast majority of the population. We now have equilibrium, with a
healthy rabbit stock, and regular outbreaks of myxy. If the bees are allowed
to adapt, I'm sure the same will happen in the case of mites. What hard data
is there for the survival of bees with TM over the years?

Regards,

Robert Brenchley

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