John asked:
 
And one more question for Jerry Bromenshank:

Jerry , have you found  any races/strains/common origin of bees that seem to 
have avoided the CCD,  or conversely, that seem to show susceptibilty? 
 
Answer:  I'm not sure.  Surveys to date tend to list one more  than the 
others BUT that may be an artifact of how we are asking the  questions.  We're 
working on normalizing the results. 
 
Simple answer, we haven't found a resistant race or queen supplier -  yet.  
We may have some evidence of susceptible races, only time and  more surveys 
will tell.  So, keep those surveys coming in, especially as we  enter 
spring/summer, when CCD should be easier to distinguish from overwintering  loss.  I'm 
assuming that CCD isn't going away, unfortunately.
 
To illustrate the queen origin problem, using a somewhat different  issue - 
if we look at the CCD colonies across the nation, we seem to have a high  
percentage of CCD colonies originating from some very specific parts of the  U.S.  
Many seem to have a common link back to a few very specific  states, where 
they were summered.  (And no, the common link is not  necessarily CA or Florida).
 
Except, given the main migration routes in the U.S., the apparent  connection 
may just reflect common movement patterns, rather than any real  link.  So a 
link back to a region of the U.S. may not hold up.
 
Similarly, too many large beekeepers use queens from several suppliers, and  
don't keep the records needed to trace colony performance to specific queen  
lines or suppliers.  On the other hand, sidelines and hobby beekeepers  often 
do know who, what, where -- mainly as a consequence of their smaller  scale 
operations.  So, they may have the more useful information - if there  is any 
queen influence.
 
For those of you who like to dig in the literature, Bill Wilson's ideas  
about a possible genetic basis for disappearing disease were eventually  addressed 
in articles in ABJ, I think in the early 70s, not by  Bill, but by the Steve 
Tabor and Harry Laidlaw (I think in the same  issue).  
 
And if anyone on Bee-L doesn't know who Bill is, he was the Research Leader  
at the Wyoming Bee Lab (no longer in existence), and later at the Weslaco  
lab.  He lives about an hour and 1/2 out of St George, Utah.  He's in  good 
health, and he's been putting together some notes about what happened all  those 
years ago.  I need to get back to him.
 
 
Cheers
 
Jerry
 






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