>
> >And what possible defense, other than eating and defecating the invisible
> microscopic particles, do honey bees have "against" viruses?


Pete, I'm not understanding why you said this, as I know that you are well
aware of the short interfering RNA antiviral immune response of insects,
including bees.

There are also colony level behavioral mechanisms that help to minimize
virion transfer from older bees to the queen and brood.

There also appears to be heritable genetic immunity--as evidenced by Dr
Sela's finding of colonies resistant to IAPV, and Dr Rinderer's rapid
breeding for resistance to CBPV.

Although individual bees regularly succumb to viruses, the colony is
generally able to keep them in check.  The Bromenshenk/Wick graphs of weekly
virus levels in colonies indicates that there are constant bee/virus battles
going on in most colonies.

If colonies did not indeed have strong defenses against viruses, there would
be no colonies left alive today.

Randy Oliver

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