> But the point is not how many organisms are there, but which ones cause
> fatality. So, maybe none of these things alone causes fatality in the bee
> colony. A colony can handle mites or virus or nosema or brood disorder or
> bad environmental conditions. But if more than a few of these are present,
> the colony "gets sick" and sometimes dies. Not so different from us, you
> think?
>

Way back when, virus were considered a novelty in colonies. They were there
but caused no (identifiable) problems. Then came Tracheal.

As Peter noted, all it takes is a trigger to cause what is considered
benign to become a problem, if it is properly identified. The problem is,
it may never be identified because of all the masking agents available to
be blamed.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm