On another thread that Waggle guy writes:
...Penn State researchers have found that if bees have mites,
>their production of GOX decreases.   They suspect as mites build up, not
>as much GOX will be found in the honey and the honey has more bacteria.

Hello Mr Waggle & All,

If we look at what we know:

We know that glucose oxidase produced in the honeybee hypopharyngeal 
gland, and is placed in the colonies honey and food as a bacteria 
inhibitor.  

We know that the size of the hypopharyngeal gland depends nutritional 
content of the pollen eaten by the newly emerged workers.  Poor quality 
pollen is known to cause the gland to develop smaller in size. 

We know that varroa infestations can affect the nutritional health of the 
colony in the quality and quantity of pollen collected, smaller pollen 
loads were also observed on pollen foragers from varroa infested colonies.

I understand that Zachary Huang has done some research on factors that 
affect hypopharyngeal gland activity.  I wonder if any of his research may 
have been focused on varroa affects on hypopharyngeal gland activity?

Just a wild guess, but,,,
The effects of varroa on nutritional pollen foraging could intern cause a 
smaller less efficient hypopharyngeal gland to develop, which might result 
in less anti bacteria substances produced by the hypopharyngeal gland to 
be placed in the colonies food, which could make possible a rise in 
harmful bacteria found in stored food which when fed to larva may easily 
infect the developing bee due to its weakened immune system by way of the 
scars made by the feeding varroa, and varroa feces would only serve to 
accelerate this bacterial growth, leaving all the factors in place to 
cause DWV symptoms to appear.   Remember now, its just a wild guess.

Comments anyone?

Joe Waggle 
Ecologicalbeekeeping.com 
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries' 
Feral Bee Project:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FeralBeeProject/ 

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