James Fischer wrote:

> Judy Chen of the USDA Beltsville Bee Lab has done
> quite a bit of work showing that while small numbers
> of bees in colonies certainly can and do get viruses
> without mites, that the mites spread viruses with
> alarming certainty.

I thought that Brenda Ball had explained this years ago.

We all know that 'small numbers of bees in colonies certainly can and do get 
viruses without mites'.  All of us who kept bees before varroa arrived on 
the scene saw it with our own eyes; we did not need anyone to do 'quite a 
bit of work' to tell us that.  Indeed, if this were not true, then the 
viruses would presumably have all died out long ago.
Then varroa arrived and colonies began to collapse, but we did not properly 
understand why.
Now we know that the major problem is due to viruses spread by varroa - and 
we also understand that varroa spreads viruses injecting viruses directly 
into the haemolymph of the larvae - something that would never have happened 
before varroa arrived on the scene.

Best wishes

Peter Edwards
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www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/ 

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