Well, let's hope that's good news. Knowing what one is battling is more than half the battle.

I thought I'd give a little update. IAPV may be a factor in Colony Collapse Disorder, but it has yet to be found as the cause of this disorder. The USDA labs are currently on task with other research centers and Universities in the United States to find out what is causing this disorder to claim such a higher percentage of hives out of winter. One new item that was interesting was that banked samples from several years ago show that the IAPV virus has indeed been with us in the United States for many years prior to any importation of Australian package bees. Back-story: Our biggest threat up until this point (and most likely still much more of a problem than CCD) are Varroa mites infesting honey bee colonies. Australian package bees were sought out as a clean mite-free importation to boost American (as well as other parts of the world) stock of honey bees. The media last year ran with the idea that CCD happened near the same time the US allowed the importation of Australian package bees and queens. Further research last year found the existence of a newly discovered virus (IAPV) from samples around this time frame as well. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your stance) this virus has actually endemic to the United States for at least the last decade or more. IAPV can be in collusion with other biological agents as the cause of CCD, but we now know that this IAPV virus was not acquired recently from Australian packages.