In a message dated 19/04/2007 01:51:55 GMT Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Chris  with your Bailey thread with unemployed foragers and
rubbing shoulders more  for spread of disease, what comes to
mind here is: Cannot the bees groom  themselves and clean
anymore in today's modern world? 


Dee,
 
Viruses are a mite smaller than mites and I doubt if grooming will make the  
slightest difference. What Bailey says is:
 
"....the incidence of severe cases of paralysis is positively and  
significantly associated with the population density of colonies. Paralysis is  
transmitted by bodily contact between a live infected individual and healthy  
individuals, mostly during the foraging season. The more bees are crowded  together 
within their colonies the more efficiantly is the virus transmitted.  This is 
because the hairs on the cuticle of the bees are broken by close bodily  
contact, and the virus is carried in and transmitted to the temporarily exposed  
cytoplasm of the underlying tissue.  Crowding in the winter cluster does  not 
spread paralysis because bees are then torpid and unlikely to damage one  another."
 
Chris



   

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