I have traded several levels of back-and-forth e-mails with both Kevin Hackett (USDA-ARS) and the reporter who wrote the story as reported by ABC (Australia) news that started this thread. I'm going to call the story an example of very poor reporting, rather than anything else. The reporter freely admitted to not having done his homework on CCD, and was unaware of the implications of the paraphrasing he did. (He is a freelancer in DC who sells the occasional snippet to ABC Australia.) While the specific quotes attributed to Kevin are accurate, Kevin took extreme exception to the paraphrasing, and the (mis)characteristation of the role of USDA-ARS. He stressed that they will provide "results" to USDA-APHIS, and let USDA-APHIS come up with their own "recommendation" as to what, if anything, to do about imported bees over the short term and long term. Kevin is standing firm on the lack of any specific claim of causality, and standing firm on the lack of any specific accusation that "IAPV came to the US from Australia". So, I think Kevin would like me to stress: 1) There is no proof that IAPV causes CCD. 2) There is no proof that IAPV came from Australia to the USA. While the road to settling (1) may be a long one, Kevin feels that the work they are doing on stored samples may clarify (2) over the short term. The punch line here is that the same folks who took exception to my use of the phrase "only the sketchiest evidence links Australian exported bees to the problem" are now working nights and weekends to get some more evidence to confirm or refute the sketchy evidence published so far. If any of the above surprises anyone, realize that Kevin is not a ventriloquist, and the authors of the paper published in "Science" are not dummies. The only way to avoid further embarrassment is for all concerned to circle the wagons, and blame "the press" for "jumping to conclusions". As someone who might be mistaken for "press" if the sun were in your eyes, I think I should state on behalf of AP, UPI, Reuters, Science Magazine, the New York Times, and the Hearst, Gannett, Tribune, and Knight Ridder newspaper chains that they didn't leap - they was PUSHED! :) Meanwhile, Australian bees are "available now" according to an ad in the November "Bee Culture", implying that USDA-ARS had better work quick. Sadly, bees imported from overseas have never been "inspected" prior to export with anything more than a glance in the general direction of a few hives, as I point out in my article in the same edition of Bee Culture: http://bee-quick.com/reprints/beepocalypse.pdf While I am perhaps the biggest fan around of this sort of "train wreck", the impending situation at hand scares even me - the potential for collateral damage is too high, and there are just too many ways to screw up here. Top of the 8th, 2-1 Red Sox. (Excuse my excitement, but if they win the World Series, this will be the 2nd time in not just my lifetime, but also in my father's lifetime AND my grandfather's lifetime that the Sox have won the World Series.) ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************