>Did Prof Fries know what he was talking about?

I think so - but who am I to judge - and how?

Most of his talk covered things that we already know about the history and 
spread.  No-one has produced reliable evidence of N.c. in mellifera pre-1998 
(looked at Paxton's frozen samples of bees from around the world.

1994 Na tested on Apis cerana in China - it will infect - but all colonies 
in China had some N.c.

Talked about N.c. replacing N.a. in some countries.  Does not happen 
everywhere (not happening in Sweden) - nobody knows why.

No competitive advantage for one over the other.

N.c. infectious dose may be slightly lower but this does not explain the 
rapid spread.

In Spain, Higes reported caged bees die in 8 days - nobody has been able to 
repeat this work.  So why the mass die-off in Spain and Portugal?  Was it 
N.c.?  Is climate involved?  Could it be the race of bee?  [Iberian bees 
originally came from Africa via different route to the other European races. 
P.E.]

Monitoring in Germany does not support high colony level virulence.

The N.c./Iridescent virus/CCD theory was just a comment - but put across 
very forcefully  using the word 'RUBBISH' several times.  He claimed that 
many others were of the same opinion that the research was flawed, but did 
not elaborate.

Best wishes

Peter
52.194546N, -1.673618W 

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