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> The Report "A metagenomic survey of  microbes in honey bee colony collapse disorder" (D. L. Cox-Foster et al., 12 October 2007, p. 283) identified Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) as a putative marker for colony collapse disorder (CCD). It also purports to show a relationship between U.S. colony declines as early as 2004 and importations of Australian honeybees.  … It would now be appropriate for the authors of the Science Report to issue a retraction of the claims linking CCD to importation of Australian bees. -  DENIS ANDERSON & IAIN J. EAST

> Anderson and East suggest that CCD is an ambiguous disorder consistent with normal winter losses. We do not agree. CCD is characterized by a rapid loss of adult bees; excess brood, in all stages, abandoned in the hive; low levels of varroa; and a lack of dead bees in or near the hive. In CCD, levels of varroa do not reach those associated with normal winter losses, distinguishing CCD from colony declines attributed to parasitic mites. Although Anderson and East imply that we claim to have determined the cause of CCD, the final paragraph of our paper states, "We have not proven a causal relationship between any infectious agent and CCD" ... Nonetheless, IAPV lineages have now been found in U.S. bees; one of them correlates genetically with IAPV found in bees in Australian shipments. The presence of IAPV strains in older U.S. samples does not eliminate a role for this virus in CCD. - DIANA COX-FOSTER et al

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