I'd be pretty sure that abdominal stunting is nothing to do with mites siphoning out the haemolymph … almost certainly it will reflect gross changes in developmental gene expression triggered by the virus (or in the case of CBPV, in the newly emerged worker). There's a helluva lot going on and the virus throws a real spanner in the works, converting individual cells into factories for virus replication and triggering systemic responses which - frankly - bu*ger everything up). What's the highest mite load you've ever seen in a single cell? 5 or 6 perhaps, more usually 3 or less. I doubt that number have the capacity (I accept they'll "use" some of it for growth as well) to account for the smaller volume of the abdomen.
Gavin will probably pop up with a paper citing the haemolymph volume of mite-exposed and unexposed pupae … and whoever wrote that paper is surely someone to avoid at a dinner party.
CBPV has not been fully classified yet … however, treatment with acid appears to generate empty particles (which might be expected to be non-infectious):
http://vir.sgmjournals.org/content/2/2/251.short
though I'm not aware of anyone testing infectivity of these preparations. If you've got any Virkon that is sure to work.
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