Monsanto didn't aquire Beeologics to create bee health products--they
wanted some proprietary dsRNA technology that the company had developed.
The market for any bee product is completely dwarfed by the market for corn
and soy products.  That said, Monsanto is giving the ex Beeologics team
plenty of support to see if they can make progress on bee health products.
Call it greenwashing if you wish, but my impression is that Monsanto is
willing to help beekeepers so long as there seems to be some potential.  In
the meantime, we are benefiting from some great data from their high-tech
labs.

Since I've already seen the Beeologics antiviral product clearly work in
the field, I'd expect it to hit the market before any varroa product.

>
> >So, patents and preliminary papers aside, I still fail to understand why
> someone with a viable RNAi technology would be wasting time on corn
> rootworm
> as their first application.


Because dsRNA technology doesn't work as well in mammals, such as humans,
as it does in plants and insects.  Hardly a waste of time to develop plant
protection products, crop protection from pests is still a huge and
profitable market .  Monsanto is a plant company--working with bees is an
exception.  They do not develop pharmaceuticals.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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