I am concerned about the conclusion of previous postings regarding Dr. Nancy
Ostiguy's comments that "transferring the honey from such a hive that died
from high virus levels would cause similarly high virus levels in the hive
that received it" and therefore "if you feed that honey to another hive, you
may kill that hive too".

I contacted Penn State University and Dr. Nancy Ostiguy clarified her
comments.  Below is her response.

Jim Bobb
President
Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Assocation
2011 Sheare Road
Lansdale, PA  19446
(610) 584-6778


In fall 2004 our colonies had very high levels of deformed wing
virus. Over 90% of the colonies failed to over winter. When we
restarted our colonies from packages in spring 2005, we used the
honey and pollen from dead outs to feed our new bees.  Surprisingly,
we found high viral levels immediately after starting these colonies.
These levels were equivalent to levels we normally observe at the end
of the season in October. We don't know if the virus levels found in
these colonies was related to the virus present pollen and honey feed
to the bees. This spring we will be starting a study that will feed
bees virus containing honey and/or pollen or pollen and/or honey
without virus. The results of this study will tell us if the deformed
wing virus can be transmitted via pollen and/or honey.

We have observed in colonies with elevated virus levels that
eliminating the mites does not result in an immediate decrease in
viral levels. We don't know what happens to the virus levels several
weeks later. We suspect that a colony living three or more weeks
after the mites levels have been reduced will have lower virus levels
because the colony will have new bees to replace those that have died
or have high virus levels.

Nancy Ostiguy, M.P.H., Ph.D

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