"Rosalind James" wrote:
> So far, the easiest way to slow the spread of the
> viruses in a hive is to control varroa.

Why chase rainbows when the above has shown to be the best method.

Peter asks:
I am wondering if there has been any research into the susceptibility of
colonies to viruses, particularly those causing problems when vectored by
varroa.

The USDA-ARS bee labs looked at ( I should say document)viruses back when
varroa first arrived in the U.S..

I sat through many presentations at bee meetings  and talked directly with
many USDA people.

Because viruses most likely will never be able to be cured in bees & viruses
usually only do the most damage when varroa loads are at high levels the
only logical method is to control the varroa (as Rosalind said above).

 The researchers  which follow the research laid out by Bailey many years
ago on honey bee viruses have documented many bee viruses  but have provided
little so far in controlling bee virus.

The key to the bees surviving varroa in my opinion is in cutting the number
of varroa in the hive. Period!  Most researchers in the world stand  with
me.

I believe virus research should continue but I am against  spending a huge
amount of our precious research money in the area.

Peter asks:
 Has varroa eliminated the most susceptible colonies,
leaving us with more resistant stock?

Sure! The Russian bee which has seen varroa pressure for many many years is
proof of the bee adapting to varroa (and only took around a hundred years).

The problem is the number of years and amount of dead hives  it took the
Russian bee to adapt and many of the Russian lines imported demonstrated
poor varroa tolerance here in the U.S..

The U.S.  with its huge pollination needs could not afford to simply let
hives die as the Russians did. The U.S. beekeeping industry was put on
Chemotherapy. Interestingly many beekeepers which said they would never put
a chemical strip in a bee hive in 1987 (later did after most of their hives
died) are the beekeepers  which are the hardest to convince the time has
come to get off the chemical treadmill    (or at least find softer chemicals
to use).


Perhaps a hobby beekeeper in a small city will come up with a cure for
varroa or a bee which will tolerate varroa but I would bet my money on the
very small group of researchers & beekeepers doing serious varroa research.

I will say that varroa like all pests seem to go through periods of being
more problematic in certain years than others. So far we do not understand
why.

One of the problems in studying varroa is the short life span without a
host.
Diana Sammataro told me this year a method of prolonging the life span of
varroa in the lab so far looks promising.

Bob

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