Hello Jim & All,

>Mite problems, even serious ones, would not present the
symptoms being seen with CCD.

I realize we have been over the above before but many of us believe that
past chemicals used to control varroa are suspect ( Jeff Pettis ABF
presentations).

Parasitic mite syndrome ( Dr. Shiminuki) as explained to us
can display itself as many symptoms. "Shim" said from the start that once
virus gets a start then all researchers can do is say PMS symptoms are
present. The one "new" part of PMS ( virus & fungi included as per "Shim")
is the research of Diana Cox Fisher (Penn State) which proves bees can
spread PMS contamination while pollinating and can bring the contamination
back to infect new hives. We always suspected such but now we are sure. Also
we now know once the queen is infected with virus the whole hive can be
infected through the egg.

I have only spoken with Dr. Shiminuki once since
his retirement and have not now got contact information for "Shim" but would
love to hear his opinion on CCD. I believe his opinion would be valuable to
the CCD team.

I have got quite a bit of varroa and PMS experience. Both from my own bees
and other operations. I believe quite a bit of CCD can be traced back to the
above ( maybe not all for sure).

An emergency room nurse told me heart attack symptoms are expressed in many
ways other than pain directly over the heart. A sharp pain in the shoulder
blade is common. Symptoms can vary with disease making diagnosis hard.

We are taking a closer look ( Penn State) at "PMS" than we ever have before.
Learning new things but still "PMS" is not new. Varroa is in all the CCD
hives. With varroa comes "PMS".
Parasitic Mite syndrome might explain the die off better than colony
collapse disorder.
CCD points simply to a big unknown. What if no new unknown problem is found?
What do the test results say? I think after being in the bee business over
forty years if a new problem had been found we would have been told by now.
Tests take hours or days not MONTHS!

PMS points to what Diana Cox Fisher has found in the deadouts of the CCD
hives. Virus & fungus. She points out that PMS is present even if the
classic symptoms are not displayed.

Hypothesis:
New forms of virus may be only effecting the adult bees. Also we have long
known that older bees would rather fly from the hive to die than die in the
hive. I started an article years ago about the curious phenomenon of
"suicide" bees.
As I said before I  welcome all the current bee research!
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

"What we don't know is so vast it makes what we do know seem absurd"






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