Medhat Nasr, Ph. D. wrote:

> The following link has an excellent study about Viruses in bees and mites. 

>  http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=535170

If you have not read it, do so. It is an exceptional article with no ax 
to grind. Of interest to me was:

"The mechanisms by which viruses could be reactivated in insects are not 
fully understood, and predisposing factors other than mite parasitism 
might play a role in this phenomenon; such factors include coinfection 
with bacteria or protozoans (7) and the effects of chemicals released 
into the environment (13, 15, 16). The latter factor is suspected to 
play a role in triggering viral disease outbreaks in mammals (32), as 
well as in insects (22)."

If you check the footnotes they deal with pesticides released in the 
area around bees, and seal deaths from immune suppressors in the 
environment. This tracks back to the French problem with Bayer and bee 
deaths from imidacloprid. Bayer said it was mites and the beekeepers 
said it was imidacloprid. It could have been both, but with imidacloprid 
playing the role of first weakening the bees so they were then 
susceptible to the mites and transmitted virus. Any organism, if 
weakened, it much more susceptible to attacks that, when in a "normal" 
state, they would handle easily. When you read of all the virus that 
exist normally in a colony and the levels at which they are found, 
keeping your bees healthy also means not introducing outside factors 
that will weaken them. That seems obvious, but not to all.

I was playing with this thought. Maybe some of the chemical treatments, 
be they "organic" or not, could, over time, weaken the bees to the point 
that a lesser mite count could be as bad as a heavy load. It also 
answers the concern of many with contaminants in wax causing problems 
with the health of the colony. Even though the strength of the 
contaminants is low, it would still be a weakening factor.

We seem to continually get back to the established, good beekeeping 
practice of culling old wax by replacing frames over a programmed 
period. God practices better beekeeping than most of us by letting wax 
moths cull out old combs and giving bees a fresh start. In essence, bees 
in nature are removed from old contaminants, so they can at least have 
somewhat of a head start in the disease war.

I was told by several beekeepers, when I first started keeping bees, 
that there is no reason to rotate in new comb, and that old black, brood 
comb had been in their hives for tens of years. I consider that bad 
advice, especially in this current age of Varroa, and, actually, in any age.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---