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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
"Peter L. Borst" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 6 Sep 2007 17:07:37 -0400
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According to a new report in the journal Science, the Israeli Acute
Paralysis Virus (IAPV) may be a potential cause of the epidemic that
has afflicted between 50 and 90 per cent of commercial bee colonies in
the U.S.

The earliest reports of colony collapse disorder date to 2004, the
same year the virus was first described by Israeli virologist Ilan
Sela. That also was the year U.S. beekeepers began importing bees from
Australia - a practice that had been banned by the Honeybee Act of
1922.

Now, Australia is being eyed as a potential source of the virus. That
could turn out to be an ironic twist because the Australian imports
were meant to bolster U.S. bee populations devastated by another
scourge, the varroa mite. Officials are discussing reinstating the
ban, said the Agriculture Department's top bee scientist, Jeff Pettis.

In the new study, a team of nearly two dozen scientists used the
genetic sequencing equivalent of a dragnet to round up suspects. The
technique, called pyrosequencing, generates a list of the full
repertoire of genes in bees they examined from U.S. hives and directly
imported from Australia.

Sela, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said he will
collaborate with U.S. scientists on studying how and why the bee virus
may be fatal. Preliminary research shows some bees can integrate
genetic information from the virus into their own genomes, apparently
giving them resistance, Sela said in a telephone interview. Sela added
that about 30 percent of the bees he has examined had done so.

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