New Breed of Honey Bees a Major Advance in Global Fight Against Parasitic Varroa Mite:
A new breed of honey bees provides a major advance in the global fight against the parasitic Varroa mite, new research shows.
[...] "The Varroa mite is the greatest threat to managed honey bee colonies globally," said Dr. Thomas O'Shea-Wheller, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute at Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
"So far, new methods to control the mites – and the diseases that they carry – have had limited success, and the mites are becoming increasingly resistant to chemical treatments. It's a ticking time-bomb."
On the whole, European bees do not identify and remove bee larvae infested with the mites, known as Varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH), but some hive individuals do. The researchers have been selectively breeding for this trait and have field-tested these colonies with great success, seeing a two-fold increase in colony survival.
"The great thing about this particular trait is that we've learned honey bees of all types express it at some level, so we know that with the right tools, it can be promoted and selected for in everyone's bees," said research molecular biologist Dr. Michael Simone-Finstrom, of the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
Dr. O'Shea-Wheller said bee breeding and testing is expensive and takes time, but that breeding mite-resistant bees is cost-effective in the long term, and is likely to be the only sustainable solution to deal with the Varroa pandemic.
Journal Reference:
Shea-Wheller, Thomas A., Rinkevich, Frank D., Danka, Robert G., et al. A derived honey bee stock confers resistance to Varroa destructor and associated viral transmission [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-08643-w)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 10 2022, @01:22PM (1 child)
It's been known for me than a century that inbred commercial European bees have mite problems and wild populations don't, almost entirely related to grooming practices that were lost in the imbreds.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 10 2022, @05:54PM
All kinds of natural protections are lost in the domestication process, first that comes to mind reading the article is: domestic bees protected by insecticide from mites are not getting the benefit of natural selection for mite tolerance/resistance, and so the insecticide using bee keepers are breeding insecticide dependent bees.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 10 2022, @02:08PM (1 child)
Selectively
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 10 2022, @08:47PM
... about how selective breeding works. Your misconception may result in a dick full of stingers.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 10 2022, @02:56PM
new job class: exterminator
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11 2022, @12:41AM (1 child)
Maybe we can fashion a mini forge to churn out bee helmets, bee armor, bee swords to take murder hornets on head to head.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11 2022, @04:51PM
Something tells me that you are not unfamiliar with Dwarf Fortress.