All:    
The LA Article is based on  samples that I took from collapsing colonies in 
CA last month. I sent these  to the Army via another small MT business, BVS, 
Inc. 
The Army came down to the  Beltsville meeting to share their results, which 
were obtained last Friday and  Sunday. 
For clarification, the IVDS  system is not a gene-based system. Rather, it 
sizes and counts intact viruses -  its fast, quick, and relatively cheap.  It 
appears to have identified 7  viruses in FL, CA, and Australian bees.  By 
itself, IVDS does not name  viruses, so Charles Wick sent samples on to CA for 
sequencing. 
The identifications are still  ongoing, but iflavirus, as I understand, is 
not confined to Dwarf Wing,  looks like we have Black Queen Cell, Sacbrood, and 
some other things. 
The point of all of this, the  IVDS system is reasonably portable.  It 
requires simple sample prep - grind  up bees with a coffee grinder or blender, 
spin-down, filter, shoot through  instrument.  It will flag every virus in the 
sample.  Takes about 2  hrs, so if one had a mobile or transportable lab, it could 
be sent to problem  areas, and samples could be processed for virus the same 
day. 
Each virus appears as a peak on  an output chart.  The height of the peak 
indicates the titer  (concentration).  This system has not been applied to bee 
viruses  before.  Its been about 4 weeks since we sent the first samples to the  
Army.  They had to work up the sample prep steps.  Now that they have  that 
step complete, sample processing is easy.  Once a peak is named, one  can 
reasonably expect that when a peak for that size virus is found, it will be  what 
the original I.D. said - so you don't have to continually do  sequencing.  
Obviously, one will need to re-check periodically. 
Jerry 
Bee Alert Technology 
Dave 
VBS, Inc. 




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