I think those are good questions answers  Peter. Not quite sure about the tone of them, but I've got a thick skin.

I've been a hobbyist  beekeeper for almost 25 years, and as this is an newish phenomena (the development of a synergy between Varroa, viral pathogens, and N. ceranae),  and the understanding of DWV has strains that are wildly different in virulence and mortality, I was curious if there was anyone out there doing anything proactive in practice about limiting their hives exposure. If in fact, a decomposed larva carcass in a hive that died of DWV ended up being a "DWV bomb", or had a chance of being one, it seemed prudent to not ask the bees to be cleaning it out. 

As mentioned in a previous email, I had at one point a number of hives adjacent to each other succumb to CBPV. And- died. Spreading like that, and dying, is not really "normal" for that virus - the general "treatment" as you know is try re-queening, decongesting,  and not worry about it, as it is unlikely to spread.  That it did just the opposite in my apiary, felt like a "new" phenomena to me- possibly related to the mite loads.  I contacted the Beltsville Lab at the time, as well as our own extension office. Judy Chen asked that I send samples as they were assessing the role of mites with CPBV. She suggested that I use a bleach solution to clean the equipment, and the area which they were in, which I did. I also isolated these hives as best I could- took them into the deep woods around here to avoid further contamination (where they died). None of that was recommended as far as I could find in any bee literature, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it again should it happen again. Its horrible.

So that background experience prompted my question, in addition to reading Randy's discussion of the evolution of the DWV virus and its possible increasing potency. However, it sounds like no one is doing this in practice, and that also it is unknown what the survival off the host is (seemed like a simple question, but maybe I can find it in the literature). I certainly understand that DWV , as with many pathogens, always present, and one can't identify the strain of a virus, but I was in fact wondering if there might be some wisdom in isolating or disinfecting hives. Apparently you do not do this with your own hives, or think so its worth the time, which is the input I was looking for. 

Thank you for the guidance here-

Matthew

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