What it did show was that if you directly inject the virus into the bee or
larvae, it will die. This is not a natural way
I had a Graduate Student who did his thesis on metallothion production by
bees exposed to cadmium.
He spent months working out a procedure whereby the injection procedure
itself wasn't a problem, AND he injected saline in to the controls.
We've seen some discussion of 'treatment'. In research, although
treatment is considered to be the factor(s) of interest, we have to keep in mind
that the controls need to be treated the same. The trick is in subjecting
the controls to EVERYTHING except the treatment factor of interest.
In order words, you may be introducing inadvertent, unplanned treatments
just by handling or absence of handling, etc.
So, if you pick up and feed bees in a trial, you need to do the same with
the controls.
If you inject bees with a virus or a chemical, you need to inject the
controls (with the carrier solution).
My point on Bee-L other day, if you're looking at a low level stressor,
you may need to include a treatment that is a different kind of low level
stressor, so that you can see whether the effect, if any, is due to the factor
you are studying or is just a stress response.
For field trials, if you have to open and manipulate colonies, pull frames,
look for queens, etc. for the treatments, you need to do the same to the
controls. Big issue here is often 'time' that the colony is open,
disturbed.
Control does NOT mean leaving colonies undisturbed. If you smoke the
treatments to put something in the hive, you need to smoke the controls. If
you open the treatment hives, you need to open the controls.
Overall, I see shortcuts taken here, or just overlooking these issues.
And, I admit, it can be challenging trying to figure out how to treat the
controls the same as the TREATMENTS. Note, I'm well aware of my shift in
the use of the word treatment. There is the TREATMENT of interest, and
there are all the other things that you do that may constitute a treatment.
Jerry
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