Bob writes:
Most researchers working on a possible cause and focused on a single cause
can not *in my opinion* see these patterns. Why would they as with most
their actual daily lab work does not include looking at the shear number of
hives the commercial industry sees.

I simply cannot agree with these statements. First off, the _CCD Working Group_ is composed of scientists, beekeepers, industry, and government officials working in collaboration to determine the relative importance of each and every factor, and to put these together into the bigger picture. There aren't researchers working on their own pet theory, but rather, it is a group effort aimed at using multiple facilities and multiple tools.

The second part, we have gone over and over. You do not need to have a million hives at your immediate disposal to get a sense of what is going on. Sampling, when done scientifically, gives a very accurate picture of the whole. To dismiss the efforts of these people because they have only sampled a few thousand hives is absurd. So far as what the commercial industry sees, they have their own bias; that's why a collaborative effort is required.

Peter Borst

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