About the Authors

Jerry J. Bromenshenk

beeresearch@aol.com

Affiliations Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, United States of America, Bee Alert Technology, Inc., Missoula, Montana, United States of America

Colin B. Henderson

Affiliations College of Technology, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, United States of America, Bee Alert Technology, Inc., Missoula, Montana, United States of America

Charles H. Wick

Affiliation US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Edgewood Area, Maryland, United States of America

Michael F. Stanford

Affiliation US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Edgewood Area, Maryland, United States of America

Alan W. Zulich

Affiliation US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Edgewood Area, Maryland, United States of America

Rabih E. Jabbour

Affiliation Science Applications International Corporation, Abingdon, Maryland, United States of America

Samir V. Deshpande

Affiliations Science Technology Corporation, Edgewood, Maryland, United States of America, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Towson University, Towson, Maryland, United States of America

Patrick E. McCubbin

Affiliation OptiMetrics, Inc., Abingdon, Maryland, United States of America

Robert A. Seccomb

Affiliation Bee Alert Technology, Inc., Missoula, Montana, United States of America

Phillip M. Welch

Affiliation Bee Alert Technology, Inc., Missoula, Montana, United States of America

Trevor Williams

Affiliation Instituto de Ecologia AC, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

David R. Firth

Affiliation Department of Information Systems and Technology, The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, United States of America

Evan Skowronski

Affiliation US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Edgewood Area, Maryland, United States of America

Margaret M. Lehmann

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Shan L. Bilimoria

Affiliations Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, United States of America, Center for Biotechnology and Genomics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, United States of America

Joanna Gress

Affiliation Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Kevin W. Wanner

Affiliation Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Robert A. Cramer Jr

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, United States of America

Competing Interests

Jerry J. Bromenshenk is CEO and a co-owner of Bee Alert Technology, Inc., Missoula, MT; a Montana Board of Regents' Approved Technology transfer company affiliated with The University of Montana. Colin Henderson is a co-owner and Research Vice President of Bee Alert, and Robert Seccomb is a co-owner and Chief Financial Officer of this company. Rabbih E. Jabbour is employed by Science Applications International Corporation, Abingdon, MD; Samir V. Deshpande is employed by Science Technology Corporation, Edgewood, MD; and Patrick E. McCubbin is employed by OptiMetrics, Inc., Abingdon, MD. These latter three companies provide contract research personnel to the US Army. For all four companies, financial support was in the form of salaries for contracted research. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in our guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JJB CBH CHW RAC. Performed the experiments: JJB REJ SVD PEM MML JCG RAC. Analyzed the data: JJB CBH PEM PMW RAC. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SLB KWW RAC. Wrote the paper: JJB CBH CHW MFS AWZ REJ SVD PEM RAS TW DRF SLB RAC. Coordinated overall research team: JJB. Conducted statistical analyses: CBH. Coordinated Army (ECBC) research: CHW. Directed proteomics research: MFS. Organized Army research contribution: AWZ. Conducted proteomics analysis: REJ SVD. Analyzed results using bioinformatics: REJ SVD. Contributed Information Technology guidance: RAS. Set up and annotated proteomics data base: PMW. Consulted on all aspects of Iridoviruses: TW. Coordinated efforts with US Army: DRF. Guided epidemiology approach: EWS. Directed graduate student research: KWW.