You may want to talk to Dr. Yanping Chen, ([log in to unmask])
and/or Mark Feldlaufer ([log in to unmask]), who runs the
Beltsville Bee Lab.

Dr. Chen has done some impressive PCR work on not only mites,
but the viruses transmitted by mites, between mites (via the
bees they parasitize), and thereby to bees.

The mites themselves are really nowhere near as nasty, or
as interesting as the viruses.  People have been blaming
the mites for years for what may turn out to be 90% "viruses"
and 10% "direct mite damage".

If anyone has valuable views on what work would move the
ball towards the goal, it would be this team.


Here's their maling address:

  Bee Research Laboratory
  10300 Baltimore Ave
  Bldg 476 BARC-East
  Beltsville, MD 20705
  Phone: (301) 504-8749
  Fax: (301) 504-8736


                jim

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