I guess we should once again translate into plain English:

>> Flagged lines are from the original document

Unflagged lines are the translations


>> No cause and effect between IAPV and CCD was demonstrated 

This was a amazingly honest statement.  I put it up front
so that it would not be missed.  If only the rest of the
document were as clear.

>> What is IAPV's linkage to CCD?
>> As published in September 2007 (Cox-Foster et al, Science, 2007)

And refuted by the Evans/Chen paper which was buried in American Bee
Journal
in a futile attempt to avoid seeming to contradict the paper in Science.

>> Among pathogens, IAPV is the most consistent indicator of CCD

This claim is very out-of-date and turns out to have never been
accurate.  IAPV is being sometimes found in connection with CCD, 
but not often enough to explain the results claimed to have been 
found in the Science paper.  About the most charitable thing we 
can say is that the samples tested were simply not representative 
of what has been seen since.

>> Kasmir Bee Virus (KBV), Nosema apis, and Nosema ceranae are 
>> also indicators of CCD

But sadly, none of them seem to have any predictive value.

>> At least two strains, or "families", of IAPV are present in the 
>> United States (Journal of Virology, in Press) One lineage is 
>> most prevalent in apiaries from the eastern and northwestern U.S. 
>> and probably was present before importation of Australian bees 
>> into the US in 2005.  The second strain is more frequent in sampled 
>> colonies from the western U.S. This strain matches more closely to 
>> several isolates sequenced to date from Australian package bees.

Given the above, why hasn't CCD been a regional problem?  The
answer is easy - neither "strain" speculated about has anything
to do with CCD, so there was no regional aspect to CCD outbreaks.

>> The strain of IAPV found in Israel that defined this newly 
>> described species, is distinct from those in the US and Australia.

So, what we may have here in the US may not be actual "IAPV" at all,
but instead may be a variant of Kashmir Bee Virus.  Tiny little
fragments of DNA do not a beastie make.

>> Extensive variation in the genetic sequence of the virus suggests 
>> that the virus is rapidly changing in the U.S. or has been present
>> as multiple lineages for some time.

...and that this all implies that what they are calling IAPV 
may well have diverged from KBV here in the US, and then spread
from a USA point of origin to everywhere else it has been found.

>> On-going research in Israel and the U.S. supports the assertion 
>> that IAPV can impact adult bee health and result in rapid 
>> mortality of infected bees.

>> Not all colonies with IAPV are in poor health

The two statements above are contradictory, if they are 
made about the same pathogen.  What we found was that IAPV
existed in samples taken from apparently healthy hives long
before CCD appeared, so I guess any "mortality" would have
been found only in Israel.

>> Considering all these factors, undue concern over IAPV 
>> detection is not warranted. 

Undue concern over IAPV itself is not warranted, either.

Regardless of the facts, Ian Lipkin of Columbia seems 
to wants to give people the impression that he 
"discover[ed] a virus in bees in hives affected by 
colony collapse disorder, a potential key contributor 
to that species' decline."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/04/what_are_these_bats
_telling_us_about_the_environment_we_live_in/#

http://tinyurl.com/47cw5k

****************************************************
* General Information About BEE-L is available at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm   *
****************************************************