>we can infect bees and treat with a palette  
>of medicines to see if any have an effect 
 
Treat hives surely? 
Easily done. Remove all mite treatment, 
feed, break up 3 hives throughout yard 
with TM, VD, & CCD. Wait a week. 
If the yard  is not infected I would be suprized 
Or fresh untreated ccd frames, 1 per hive 
 
But to quantify it is another matter,  
each  hive and change over time 
 
A ramp inspection/count is pretty crude, 
possably a magnitude wrong 
 
But I think anything successful will be  
unmistakable  in comparison 
 
dave 
 

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************