James Fischer wrote: Exactly what he warned us about many moons ago and got a ton of flack. The problem with CCD is succinctly described in Jim's post and one I have continually come back to, which is there is no good before (and even after) set of data. All good real time experiments need to have the before/during/after data to arrive at any decent conclusions. Controls have to be established and variables controlled. Even worse, let us look at just what is implied and see the logical outcome. IAPV is the primary culprit. As a virus, we should see it fairly wide spread just because of the movement of migratory beekeepers through almonds and blueberries. You have beekeepers from all over the country participating so contact and spread of the virus is certain. Transit conditions mean the virus should spread within colonies and you should see CCD at the end of the transit. But we in Maine did not. I have not heard reports from Florida about returning colonies and CCD. However, if we look at what will happen in a few months, you should see Varroa and Tracheal mite caused loss going into the fall and winter. It does not matter if the virus is IAPV, KBV or anything else that may live in bees. The combination of high mite load and virus are well documented and are seen every year. Some beekeepers understand what they see and some do not. We will see CCD reported this fall but will it be CCD or normal mite kills? Good luck. I also feel a bit vindicated, but for the wrong reason. The study does implicate Varroa (and Tracheal is also a culprit) as a factor in CCD. Nice to have that, but I am still in Jerry B's camp in that actual CCD is not necessarily related to Varroa. It is Disappearing Disease or something very akin to it and that disease was here long before the mites. CCD is out there, but it is ill defined since many things can yield the same symptoms. As I noted, CCD was reported by one beekeeper coming into Maine but it was not. The symptoms were the same. Mites and virus also give CCD like symptoms, but you need to know what you are looking at. Not enough beekeepers do. Bill Truesdell Bath, Maine ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************