[Pollinator] FW: CCD AND 2 STRAINS OF IAPV = MUDDY WATER

[Growald, Paul]

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Kim Greenwood [mailto:kimgreenwood at gmavt.net]
Sent:	Wednesday, December 19, 2007 07:36 AM Eastern Standard Time
To:	'Armand and Laura Maurice'; 'Bill Brierley'; 'Bill Ross'; 'Bill Smith'; 'Bunny Merrill'; 'Cathy Kashanski'; 'Dan Mason'; 'David Cain'; 'Debra Tinkham'; 'Denise Dean'; 'Diane Wells Nijensohn'; 'Dorigen Keeney'; 'Doug Barnes'; 'Doug Doenges'; 'Elizabeth'; 'Erika Keller Rogoff'; 'Gene and Van Parent'; 'Gib Geiger'; 'H. Paul Berlejung'; 'Helen Whybrow'; 'Ian Ormon'; 'Ingrid Boette'; 'James Perry'; 'Jeanne'; 'Jenny Lane'; 'Jimmy'; 'Karen Nicholson'; 'Kathy Costello'; 'Linda Wooster'; 'Maime Michael'; 'Mike Bernier'; 'Nancy Turner'; 'Nicole Burke'; 'Parker at butternutwood.com'; Growald, Paul; 'Paul Yanus'; 'Penny Sirjane '; 'Peter and Sage Kennedy'; 'Rebecca'; 'RobertBeattie'; 'ruth gray richards'; 'Sheila'; 'SHERI ENGLERT'; 'Snowsville'; 'Stephen Miracle'; 'Stu and Carla'; 'Tom Fugate'; 'William J. Morrison '
Subject:	 CCD AND 2 STRAINS OF IAPV = MUDDY WATER

 

________________________________

From: Kim Flottum [mailto:Kim at BeeCulture.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 5:31 PM
To: kimgreenwood at gmavt.net
Subject: CATCH THE BUZZ - CCD AND 2 STRAINS OF IAPV = MUDDY WATER


This ezine is also available online at http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2007.12.18.17.31.archive.html



 

CATCH THE BUZZ

 

At least 2 strains of Isreali Acute Paralysis Virus muddy the water on CCD Analysis and detection.

 

 

The Annual Meeting of The Entomological Society Of America met last week in San Diego, California. Nearly 3000 Scientists and Scientists To Be met in the frosty climes of Southern California to discuss all manner of insect research. Of particular interest to beekeepers was the half day emergency symposium held on Colony Collapse Disorder. I was fortunate enough to attend the session and I have pages and pages of notes. Some will be here, some at www.thedailygreen.com <http://www.thedailygreen.com/> , and some in the February issue of Bee Culture magazine. 

There were nearly a dozen speakers on the subject, but here I will only discuss a very few. Marla Spivak elegantly stated that we shouldn't be able to keep bees. There's just too many things going wrong - varroa is affecting all manner of honey bee health issues, poor pollen is becoming more common, pesticides, especially the new neonics are everywhere and anywhere you look, and the economics of beekeeping in general, essentially, suck (my term, not hers). To support this she read a laundry list of things going on...mites, contaminated wax comb, reduced forage, poor nutrition, pesticides, poor return on honey, increased acreage of pollination-needing crops, increased dollars for pollination contracts, lots of moving .... stir and add just one more thing and....poof. 

 

She added one glimmer of hope though, and it was worth the trip. One of the things that has been discovered with the study of the honey bee genome is that honey bees have fewer than half of the genes other insects have for fighting off diseases and pests...those immune genes you keep hearing about. But honey bees have propolis. And propolis fights off pests and diseases...maybe that's why bees are the way they are, gene-wise. So...looking at propolis a little closer, Marla and other scientists are finding that this magic substance has considerable capacity to fight off problems...honey bee problems and human problems. More is on the way, for both propolis and immune genes we're told.

 

Three new techniques to study CCD emerged at this meeting though, which is why I wanted to listen. The first, discussed by May Berenbaum from Illinois, found that if you looked at a particular set of genes only, you could easily see that these genes were expressed very differently in bees that were healthy, bees that were failing, and bees that had the symptoms of CCD. It was pretty clear. Good diagnostic, but tough for beekeepers.

 

Second, Diana Cox-Foster has found that indeed, Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus has been introduced into the U.S. at least twice. The original paper published in Science indicated that there was probably a close association between IAPV and CCD, and that the IAPV came in with the Aussie bees. Later work by USDA found that IAPV has been around since at least 2002, long before Aussie bees arrived. Not so, said Cox-Foster, who, after digging deeper has found that there are at least two strains of IAPV in the U.S., and that neither are similar to the original described in Israel. One strain was found associated with eastern bees, one strain associated with western bees, mostly from Australia. 

 

A third technique is a machine available from the Army - an Integrated Virus Detection System. To simplify, honey bees are prepared in water, the solution poured into the machine and in less that a half hour out comes a chart with peaks that show the presence of virus particles. Known viruses have known peaks, but unknown viruses can be identified later...but you will know they are there.

 

Stay tuned to Catch The Buzz for more updates on CCD and other hot beekeeping topics that you'll only find here. 

 

This CATCH THE BUZZ brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping www.BeeCulture.com <http://www.BeeCulture.com> 

Check out Bee Culture's Book store, open again for your convenience.

 

Subscribe to the Apis Newsletter: http://apis.shorturl.com

 

 

This message is copyright free, and we encourage you to use it where ever you want. 





You received this email because you subscribed to Catch The Buzz 

Unsubscribe <http://member.ezezine.com/sub.ez?e=1636.11838.372>  
Change settings <http://member.ezezine.com/sub.ez?c=1636.11838.372>  
Report abuse <https://member.ezezine.com/abuse.ez?e=1636.11838.372>  



This message and all documents that accompany it are intended only for the use of the person to which it is addressed and may contain confidential or privileged information.  Please note that any unauthorized dissemination or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail and delete all copies of the message.  If you are the intended recipient, we remind you that electronic mail on the Internet is not secure and that our e-mail communications are not encrypted or otherwise protected, unless specifically requested.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20071220/7e8ac6ea/attachment-0001.html