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Project Apis m. (PAm) helps beekeepers with virus screening |
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PAm has pledged $30,000 to support the purchase of IVDS (Integrated Virus Detection System) equipment. In addition to support from PAm, the Almond Board of California, California State Beekeepers Association, California Bee Breeders and the Idaho Honey Producers have contributed toward this project. The IVDS equipment involves an expensive detection device engineered by the Army that can detect virus particles and particle sizes. It represents a creative cross-over technology, originally built for virus screening of humans, but now with tremendous value in assisting with furthering our knowledge of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In addition, it can be used for breeding purposes to screen out bees with viruses in a breeding program. This equipment should be in place and available for sample screening by early March, 2008, under the direction of Dave Wick, Biological Virus Screening, Inc. (BVS, Inc.) and Dr. Jerry Bromenshenk (Bee Alert, Inc. and U of Montana). A donation to PAm of $40 per sample to be screened is being requested. This money will be re-directed to the IVDS working group to assist in covering the significant operating expenses necessary to provide this service to beekeepers. Please contact Dave Wick (
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) or Jerry Bromenshenk (
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) for the protocol for sending in samples.
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