In a message dated 10/9/2010 10:09:47 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

When it  will be possible to have  a TEM of the virion we are looking  for?




I'll let Trevor Williams - who literally wrote the book on this group of  
viruses provided this answer to Randy Oliver and to me.  One problem is  that 
this virus can kill via a protein that it produces, it doesn't have to  
reproduce to high numbers to cause its damage.  
 
We do have pictures of IIV in other insects, and Cramer get green wax moth  
larvae and bees from the IIV-6 inoculations.  We are scrambling to isolate  
- Cramer has worked out a method, sequence, and inoculate with the actual 
strain  of virus in US bees.  We submitted a proposal to USDA last spring to 
do  just this - we're more or less out of money.  Dr. Higes anxious to send  
samples from Spain - he DID see an IIV in bees by TEM during a technical  
survey in 2000.
 
FROM TREVOR - look up his web page, he is a world class expert:
 
 
A picture paints a thousand words.
Hopefully this issue will be  resolved over the coming months and we'll
get the image you're asking about.  Finding virus particles in
sublethally infected hosts can be extremely  difficult - - maybe you
remember how long it took for researchers to get a  photo of HIV; this
is because when the particles normally exist at a LOW  DENSITY in
covertly infected hosts, finding a cell with some particles inside  is
the proverbial needle in a haystack.  Knowing which tissue to look  at
is an important step (one which we don't have a good handle on in  the
case of the bee IIV).

Only one person has managed to observe IIV  in a sublethally infected
insect - a student from the Czech Republic found a  low density of
virus particles in some gut cells from covertly infected  mayflies
(photo attached - its copyrighted so please don't publish it  without
clearance) - but this was a serendipitous finding.




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