>
> >We've did exactly that, full proteomics, lots of viruses including a time
> sequence of viral community diversity and numbers.  And we also used
> microscopy and PCR to look at concurrent Nosema.


I find this very interesting, since our mass movement of bee colonies,
queens, and packages would be expected to expose everyone to all strains of
viruses and other pathogens. Thus I wonder why your observation that
disease traveled with specific combs holds true.

One obvious question is whether it is due to biotic factors (such as spores
or virons), or chemical factors (such a pesticide residues).  Bees are
pretty good at entombing biotic factors under cocoons, propolis, and wax.

The test would be to irradiate test combs to kill any living pathogens, and
to test the irradiated combs vs. non-irradiated combs to determine whether
the causative agent was a pathogen or a chemical residue.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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