Competitive displacement may work (and actually may be occurring
naturally) in situations with no varroa mites. It may explain why a
number of viruses are detectable, but usually at very low titres in
varroa free colonies or populations of colonies. The attached paper
suggests that once varroa is present, the viral dynamics change
considerably towards favoring highly replicating (virulent) variants
of the virus (at least for DWV).
http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1004230
***********************************************
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