Hi All,

Re: the Cox-Foster paper.
Jim eloquently points out several of the problems with this paper, and I'm 
in agreement with him.
Despite the disengenuous caveat that "We have not proven a causal 
relationship between any infectious agent and CCD,"  the authors should have 
forseen the brouhaha that it would cause in the industry.  Far better that 
it had been circulated as a preliminary report within the Working Group. 
Unfortunately, it was released (prematurely, IMHO), raising a great number 
of questions, and now beekeepers want answers.

Any answers will require far more data collection to confirm or deny the 
implications of the paper.  The type of data needed can be obtained slowly 
by PCR amplification used by the authors, or far more quickly with the IVDS 
machine that Dr Bromenshenk and the Army used.  The bee industry should be 
pounding on Dr Bromenshenk's door right now, with money in hand, asking how 
soon he can resume testing.

Randy Oliver

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