> the Israeli Acute
Paralysis Virus (IAPV) may be a potential cause of the epidemic

May be?

eipidemic? ( record almond pollination 2007 and no shortage of hives)

> that
has afflicted between 50 and 90 per cent of commercial bee colonies in
the U.S.

50-90% ? What percent fit the CCD description?

>The earliest reports of colony collapse disorder date to 2004, the
same year the virus was first described by Israeli virologist Ilan
Sela.

Not so! We saw the symptoms as early as 2002 in Florida. For business
reasons the problem was kept quiet.

>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.

Surely we would have seen the problem in Canada as those bees had been
imported for decades.

>Now, Australia is being eyed as a potential source of the virus.

I spoke with Australia tonight and little proof exists and only hypothesis.
Also a very weak hypothesis to say the least but researchers are grasping at
straws and perhaps even chasing a ghost problem as my commercial beekeepers
have got the best bees this year they have had in years! No CCD in my bees!

> Officials are discussing reinstating the
ban, said the Agriculture Department's top bee scientist, Jeff Pettis.

If the hypothesis is proven to be the cause of CCD then the import should be
stopped! *If not* U.S. beekeepers (and the powerful almond industry) needs
those Australian package bees.

>In the new study, a team of nearly two dozen scientists used the
genetic sequencing equivalent of a dragnet to round up suspects.

I think the U.S. beekeeping industry needs to see more than a weak
hypothesis before giving up a valuable beekeeping tool. Commercial
beekeepers I have spoken with are willing to drop the import *if* proof
exists Israeli Acute paralysis virus *is* the cause of CCD but all of us are
familiar with bee paralysis virus symptoms and none were reported in CCD
survey's.

>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.

Should not we study first and then decide?

bob

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************