Bee Virus Endemic

摘要

A new genetic analysis, to be published next month in the American Bee Journal, suggests that the virus linked to the collapse of honeybee colonies did not arrive in the United States via recently imported Australian bees. In September, a team of researchers reported online in Science that collapsed hives, which have affected as many as 25% of U.S. beekeepers, were much more likely than healthy hives to be infected with Israeli acute paralysis virus. They did not find the virus in bees collected before Australian bee imports began in 2005, and so suspicion fell on the Australian bees. But the team behind the new analysis found the virus in preserved bees dating back to 2002. "It seems to let the Australians off the hook," says entomologist Nicholas Calderone of Cornell University.