Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: tjc1 on July 13, 2017, 11:12:36 am

Title: Bringing European bee genes in to fight varroa
Post by: tjc1 on July 13, 2017, 11:12:36 am

I was surprised to learn that since import of live bees into the US has been forbidden since 1922, our gene pool of bees in America has been dwindling - and part of that is varroa resistance:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/07/13/536884827/no-offense-american-bees-but-your-sperm-isnt-cutting-it?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news

Title: Re: Bringing European bee genes in to fight varroa
Post by: little john on July 13, 2017, 03:50:10 pm

Part of the problem is certainly a reliance upon a relatively small gene-pool from initial importations - but perhaps the activities of commercial queen-breeders should also be examined.  For example: Steve Sheppard discovered that 900,000 queens were raised from just 600 breeders - that's 1500 daughter queens from each queen mother, an activity which - year on year - must contribute towards a serious reduction in genetic diversity.

http://www.meamcneil.com/SheppardABJms.pdf  (part one)
http://www.meamcneil.com/SheppardMs2ABJfinal.pdf  (part two)

LJ

Title: Re: Bringing European bee genes in to fight varroa
Post by: BeeMaster2 on July 13, 2017, 08:36:48 pm

LJ,
That does sound like trouble. To make it worse most of those queens that they used probably came from the same source.
Jim