I think that rather than concern about virus "threats", one should simply accept that the viruses are everywhere at negligible levels, and spread by the varroa among the bees until one gets a serious problem from the varroa-spread viruses, and the varroa parasitism itself (and no, I don't really care so much if it is hemolymph, fat body, or both that is consumed - its bad either way).

A good paper to read on the issue is this one, that shows the ubiquitous nature of the major bee viruses, even in "healthy colonies".  So, "health" is a statistical thing with bees.  DWV is just the "easy to see" virus when it gets out of hand.  About the only thing harder to see than the few bees with DWV when it is at a "low level" would be neutrinos.  (As my wife accurately and jokingly points out to me every time I pack my bags to go and talk about or work on neutrinos "65 BILLION neutrinos pass through my PINKY NAIL every second - and that stupid detector can only see 100,000 per YEAR over an entire kilometer of detector?  You should hang it up and retire, maybe take up... beekeeping!")

https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fv13071340

And while most all breeders are producing very Tracheal Mite resistant bees, AFB is certainly not gone.  In fall 2022, there was a cluster of cases in western Massachusetts, all in the Connecticut River Valley - 10 townships were affected from Holyoke (at south) to Montague (at north).

In 2023, the AFB outbreaks spread to New Salem, Ashville, Berlin, Hadley, Whately, and other areas well outside the Connecticut River Valley.  It’s a mess, as people have bought nucs with free AFB inside, and taken them hither and yon, some up to New Hampshire, maybe Vermont too, as the distances are short, and Massachusetts has a robust and active set of bee clubs.  Here's a March 31, 2023 video of the NH Bee Inspector and the Mass Ag Extension folks advising the local beekeepers on how to deal with the situation.

https://youtu.be/5jeDa0iwRY4

I think I avoid AFB by buying nothing but queens, and recycling 2 brood combs per box every year, thus replacing every brood comb on a 5 year rotation.  Some German beekeepers would call this "sloppy housekeeping", but I like using queen colors... it is a standard that should make sense at a glance to any beekeeper.  On the other hand, I could simply be doing the equivalent of banging pots together to keep tigers out of the city, reassured by my "success".  Its hard to tell, and I'm not gonna stop now and see if horrible results result.

 

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