[Pollinator] [beemonitoring] Scare Tactics?

Wed Feb 10 06:25:28 PST 2016

And how many times do we see syrphid 'bees?'

Ann Harman

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

-----Original Message-----
From: 'Anita M. Collins' frozenbeedoc at verizon.net [beemonitoring] <beemonitoring-noreply at yahoogroups.com>
To: jlnatctmi <jlnatctmi at yahoo.com>; maharris <maharris at iastate.edu>; lisahorth <lisahorth at gmail.com>
Cc: johnrpurdy <johnrpurdy at gmail.com>; rlbarsh <rlbarsh at gmail.com>; Kimberly.Stoner <Kimberly.Stoner at ct.gov>; beemonitoring <beemonitoring at yahoogroups.com>; pollinator <pollinator at lists.sonic.net>; adolezal <adolezal at iastate.edu>
Sent: Tue, Feb 9, 2016 10:10 pm
Subject: Re: Re: [Pollinator] [beemonitoring] Scare Tactics?

Isn't science reporting great!  The low person on the totem pole has to do it, and too many of them haven't a clue.
Shame.
A. 

Anita Collins, Ph.D.
Research Geneticist, USDA, ARS, Bee Research, retired
Adjunct Professor, Pennsylvania State University, Entomology

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research. 
Albert Einstein

On 02/09/16, Jack Neff jlnatctmi at yahoo.com [beemonitoring]<beemonitoring-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

The DWV story made it to the science section of todays NY Times.  Unfortunately the accompanying picture is of a syrphid fly.  A rather unlikely carrier.

best

Jack

John L. Neff Central Texas Melittological Institute 7307 Running Rope Austin,TX  78731  USA 512-345-7219

 On Tuesday, February 9, 2016 12:16 PM, "'Harris, Mary A [NREM]' maharris at iastate.edu [beemonitoring]" <beemonitoring-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

A group of us at ISU looked at presence of viruses on several species of native bees (non Bombus) and disease manifestation following injection of virus.

Mary Harris, Ph.D.
Natural Resources Ecology and Managemen t
maharris at iastate.edu

On Feb 9, 2016, at 11:50 AM, Lisa Horth <lisahorth at gmail.com> wrote:

We have also recently found DWV in Bumble bees (in VA) but as John P comments, we cannot yet comment on pathogenicity. We are in the proc ess of the quantification now.

Lisa

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 10:29 AM, John Purdy <johnrpurdy at gmail.com> wrote:

It would be good if those who announce the finding of viruses that are new or in new species could hold to a standard of sci ence reporting that includes confirmation of both replication and pathogenicity.  The first of these is easy once the RNA sequence is known but the second takes some effort. Viruses can be complicated. there is no merit in "crying wolf", but on the other hand we have experiences like Zika virus which was considered insignificant until the possibility of a major pathogenic outcome arose.

The other problems in working with viruses is the lack of diagnostic symptoms and the lack of quantitative thresholds for the results of molecular methods of detection.  

For interest, I have attached a PDF of a USDA bulletin from 1914 that describes the symptoms of viruses. Viruses must have been a new phenomenon at the time,but the knowle dge have been forgotten and rediscovered several times since then. Notice how similar they are to the symptoms described for pesticide poisoning.  A troubling ambiguity.

John Purdy, PhD

On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 8:54 AM, Stoner, Kimberly <Kimberly.Stoner at ct.gov> wrote:

Hi Russel and others,
Deformed wing virus and black queen cell virus have been found in some species of bumble bees here in the US.  We collected Bombus impatiens and sent them off to John Burand at the University  of Massachusetts as part of a larger project and he found both of these viruses in our bumble bees from several different locations (pumpkin/squash fields) around Connecticut. Others have also found honey bee viruses in other bees.

Finding these viruses with PCR is not the same as showing that they replicate or are pathogenic in bumble bees.  That has been shown with DWV and  B. terrestris in the UK, but not yet with US species, to my knowledge.
Kim

From:beemonitoring at yahoogroups.com [mailto:beemonitoring at yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Russel Barsh rlbarsh at gmail.com [beemonitoring]
Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2016 11:40 PM
To: Peter Bernhardt <bernhap2 at slu.edu>
Cc: Bee United <beemonitoring at yahoogroups.com >; Pollinator List-serv <pollinator at lists.sonic.net>; Graham Pyke <Graham.Pyke at uts.edu.au>; Gerardo Camilo <camilogr at slu.edu>; James Trager <James.Trager at mobot.org>
Subject: Re: [beemonitoring] Scare Tactics?

Peter --

We read the underlying article in S CIENCE and yes, I think the press story you cited is implying that DWV is the sole or principal cause of colony collapse, and that its spread is a consequence of global bee-keeping. The underlying article argues from phylogenetic data that DWV is an ancestral disease of honeybees, but that its transmission has been facilitated by Varroa mites as carriers. Living with a beekeeping and honey-making family (my in-laws on the islands here), I hear stories all the time about sloppy inexperienced beekeepers that don't take proper measures to control mites. So the story may have been better titled "Sloppy beekeeping facilitates transmission of DWV worldwide".

I'm much more disturbed by the evidence published in NATURE in 2014 for honeybee viruses jumping to bumblebees. We really need to do more collecting of wild bees and genomic  screening for viruses such as DWV that could be spread by domesticated and commercialized bees to wild species. 

I've been collecting wild herring (a whole different side of my science life) for colleagues at USGS here that are studying viral epidemics in fish that may be transmitted up the food chain i.e. from small fish to their predators. It's an angle I would like to help launch in the study of pollinator networks.

Thanks for throwing a spotlight on misleading reportage...

Russel.

Russel 

Russel Barsh

Director, KWIAHT

PO Box 415, Lopez Island WA 98261

On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 3:18 AM, Peter Bernhardt bernhap2 at slu.edu [beemonitoring] <beemonitoring-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Please go to the following link.  Do you think the media is overdoing it, just a bit, or is the situation as grim as they make it?  Some sites are referring to the virus as a man-made (vs. man spread) disease.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160204150617.htm

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-- 

John Purdy PhD
Environmental Scientist
Abacus Consulting Services Ltd

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Associate Professor
Dept of Biological Science
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529

lhorth at odu.edu

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        Posted by: "Anita M. Collins" <frozenbeedoc at verizon.net>        

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