>More than I wanted to know about colon inoculation, Dean!

You are welcome :)  ...remember, it isn't the inoculation, it's the inoculant!

>...has anyone promoted nonendogenous probiotic bacteria for bees?

Yes, that was the Jay Evans study from 2004 I posted yesterday.  I hadn't read it closely before, but it makes me wonder about what probiotics that Jeff Pettis was referring to.

From the Evans study:  "...it is intriguing that bacteria normally foreign to bees are capable of inducing an equally strong immune response when ingested."

This fits the dictionary definition of "probiotic", but I think most that talk about probiotics are talking about endogenous microbes that they hope to colonzie, not foreign ones.

>it's pretty clear that all populations of bees that demonstrate natural resistance to varroa have the trait of VSH....

My understanding is the VSH and HYG are demonstrated in some degree by most bees, and that they are both measured in %.  It is a high (very high) percentage that defines "hygienic" or "varroa sensitive hygienic", and in the case of AFB at least, it appears to be a "brink" event...that below 94%-95% HYG (measured by a freeze test) there is no advantage wrt AFB...over this threshold resistance is demonstrated.

When Marla Spivak spoke at our club, I asked her about naturally disease resistant populations and HYG.  Her answer was that naturally disease resistant populations, like all populations that are not selected specifically for HYG behavior, showed a wide range of HYG behavior, not necessarily high.

Selection (especially aggressive selection) for these traits certainly imparts disease resistance, but only as a result of the hygienic behavior, not any of the other myriad of traits (known and unknown) that are at work in the naturally resistant populations.  I see lots of clubs and small breeders buying some VSH stock to start a breeding program with, but since these traits fade quickly unless specifically selected for generation after generation, it seems like a poor choice to base a program upon, unless one plans to continually test and select for this behavior in order the keep the advantage.  It is my sense that some folks buying these breeders don't understand this, and think they are starting with "resistant VSH genes".

At least this all is my understanding...correct away :)

deknow

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