>I think you misinterpreted what they were saying, they were saying that 
>most microorganisms in the honey bee do NOT cause illness. They narrowed 
>down widespread collapse to the varroa/virus complex.

We have known the above since varroa first arrived in 1989. Dr.Shiminuki 
named the varroa/virus issue "Parasitic Mite Syndrome " (PMS).
PMS can be created in your bees by letting varroa levels rise.

The point Dr. Siminuki made was if you control varroa PMS *for the most 
part* PMS does not happen.

However back when "Shim" ran the bee labs all we had to deal with was nosema 
apis which really did not seem to be a factor. I have friends which never 
used fumidil B and were successful beekeepers.

Only when we saw the crashes recently did we discover significant nosema 
ceranae (N.C.) in widespread deadouts the situation was different.  Looked 
different to those looking at deadouts.
Most of us had been looking at the varroa/virus issue for around fifteen 
years.

Hard to say the number of frames of PMS I have looked at over the years 
luckily the majority in other beekeepers hives.

What is called CCD did look different than simple varroa/virus.

In my opinion widespread bee losses were related more to PMS/ nosema ceranae 
than simply varroa/virus (which I have seen for many years).

The first hives of Dave Hackenberg will go down in beekeeping history 
(besides the name CCD) for two important findings.

Kashmir bee virus (itself named in widespread bee loss in Canada  in both 
bee magazines & Speedy Bee)

the fact nosema ceranae was in the U.S. ( and later we learned  in many 
cases replaced nosema apis)

The above explained to me in many ways why his hives were in a state of 
collapse at the time.

His hives were said to hive a high varroa infestation when in blueberries 
(PMS)

Nosema ceranae spore counts were high and found in 100% of the samples as 
was Kashmir Bee virus .

Finding Kashmir bee virus and nosema ceranae in 100% of the CCd *first* 
samples certainly caught the attention of many beekeepers

Few commercial beekeepers are going to spend money on a concoction to 
control virus in their hives.
 However if a bottle was sitting on bee supply shelves with a label like:

"Bee Virus Killer"
Controls bee virus
a few bottles would sell.

Of course like HBH and other treatments there is no guarantee of results.

bob

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