Arista Bee Research - Pre Announcement

[B+.]

I wouldn't usually share private mail. However, I feel that this is of such significance to warrant breaking that usual rule. It is an email from BartJan Fernhout, a lead member of the scientific committee of Arista Bee Research (https://aristabeeresearch.org/about-us/) who has been conducting research in Hawaii for the last couple of years.
Please forgive the Google Translation for any weird grammar. It arrived in Dutch.



Last week a Brand Point + team visited our Hawaii project in the US.
We hereby indicate that we have a breakthrough here in the development and production of Varroa resistant peoples.

The breakthrough is that we have achieved such high resistance in Hawaii (100% non-reproduction and extremely low mite levels) that we can now grow high varroa resistant queens from our best lines on a production scale. These queens are normally herded on our own (reasonably isolated) stands with peoples / drones from our program and introduced into large, normal honey-producing colonies. These peoples maintain a very low level of infection (<3%, often lower) without any form of treatment (in Hawaii normally 4-5 times treatment per year is necessary - 12 months of breeding). We will now expand the number of high-resistant lines (biodiversity) and extensively test the lines for the other important properties (honey yield, mildness, spring growth for pollination, ..). We will make the progress in a publication available next winter. I have agreed with Tjeerd that you will receive an update earlier (appointment is made).

The Brandpunt broadcast will be on Thursday, May 17 at 21:00 on NPO 2.

It will also be available online: https://brandpuntplus.kro-ncrv.nl/

Regards,

Bart Jan

 

[Anduril]

Sounds promising, but they have SHB, so no benefit for the UK as yet. Unless we would be able to use the drone sperm.

 

[B+.]

Sounds promising, but they have SHB, so no benefit for the UK as yet. Unless we would be able to use the drone sperm.

As Bart indicated, the bees have no winter shut down in Hawaii. So, they are constantly exposed to varroa and the viruses they transmit.
The benefits of the teams work can be transferred anywhere using II and then island mating. If I understand his mail correctly , it isn't necessary to mate queens on Hawaii.

This is very positive and exciting news.

 

[Anduril]

As Bart indicated, the bees have no winter shut down in Hawaii. So, they are constantly exposed to varroa and the viruses they transmit.
The benefits of the teams work can be transferred anywhere using II and then island mating. If I understand his mail correctly , it isn't necessary to mate queens on Hawaii.

This is very positive and exciting news.

Thanks for clarifying, much appreciated.

 

[Erichalfbee]

As Bart indicated, the bees have no winter shut down in Hawaii. So, they are constantly exposed to varroa and the viruses they transmit.
The benefits of the teams work can be transferred anywhere using II and then island mating. If I understand his mail correctly , it isn't necessary to mate queens on Hawaii.

This is very positive and exciting news.

It is...
thanks for posting it, Paul.

 

[Brigsy]

Thanks for posting.

At a healthy bee day last weekend one RBI stated that there is talk of some research being done, with some success, regarding the sterilising of male varroa.

 

[Cuttingedge]

Thanks for posting this. It wil be interesting to see where this leads.

 

[B+.]

Thanks for posting.

At a healthy bee day last weekend one RBI stated that there is talk of some research being done, with some success, regarding the sterilising of male varroa.

A certain amount of the female varroa will be sterile anyway (~10% if I remember correctly) so sterilizing would seem to be a good way to go. I'm just not sure how they would do it without affecting the honeybee larvae too.
The strength of the VSH (non-reproducing varroa) approach is that it targets those mites that are actively reproducing (and which will do the most harm to the colony through mite population growth) without introducing any chemicals.

 

[B+.]

The link is here [Dutch/English] (https://brandpuntplus.kro-ncrv.nl/brandpuntplus/oplossing-bijensterfte/) and here (https://aristabeeresearch.org/)
You can read the article using google translate.

 

[Beefriendly]

Lets hope these gals survive the current volcanic activity.....

 

[B+.]

Lets hope these gals survive the current volcanic activity.....

Yeah...did you see that clip where the lava pushed open a gate?
I'm not sure exactly where the site is. I'm curious what the paper will say now....no doubt, we'll get some "teasers" over the coming months, but, it's not the same as reading the finished work.

 

[B+.]

The link is here [Dutch/English] (https://brandpuntplus.kro-ncrv.nl/brandpuntplus/oplossing-bijensterfte/) and here (https://aristabeeresearch.org/)
You can read the article using google translate.

Also here https://aristabeeresearch.org/category/blog-news/blog/arista-bee-research/

 

[Beefriendly]

Yeah...did you see that clip where the lava pushed open a gate?
I'm not sure exactly where the site is. I'm curious what the paper will say now....no doubt, we'll get some "teasers" over the coming months, but, it's not the same as reading the finished work.

The real question is how heritable are the genetics of the trait?
Is the multigenic phenotype heritable as in dominant or recessive? (and yes I know it unlikely to be that simple....).

I read an interesting article a few months back that suggested that the only way a whole country would eventually end up with varroa tolerant bees that were of a suitable beekeeping standard, was a constant purchase of resistant queens to replace the "dead" ones. Needed many years to achieve though.

 

[Finman]

.
New Zealand started second time to breed mite resisrant breeding project, but I have not seen any report, what is going there


But about Hawaij Queens, they surely not survive in Finland.

 

[B+.]

I read an interesting article a few months back that suggested that the only way a whole country would eventually end up with varroa tolerant bees that were of a suitable beekeeping standard, was a constant purchase of resistant queens to replace the "dead" ones. Needed many years to achieve though.

I think there will always be people who are prepared to invest in the best stock (and reap the benefits) and those who will not (and not). C'est la vie.

 

[Finman]

I read an interesting article a few months back that suggested that the only way a whole country would eventually end up with varroa tolerant bees .

That is a day dream. Not article. Beekeeping in Britain is not so important that 2-hive owners are forced to use one type bee. Local Native resistant blackbee.... Soviet System!

It would be an achievement if you get away illegal pitpull dogs off.

 

[greengumbo]

Interesting. Is this classic VSH, whereby bees remove infested brood, or is it suppressed mite reproduction (SMR), whereby some factor suppresses the ability of mites to reproduce ?

 

[B+.]

Interesting. Is this classic VSH, whereby bees remove infested brood, or is it suppressed mite reproduction (SMR), whereby some factor suppresses the ability of mites to reproduce ?

The workers detect and remove reproducing varroa inside a sealed cell.

 

[REDWOOD]

https://entomologytoday.org/2014/05...ees-are-resilient-to-varroa-mites-and-nosema/

Interesting read

 

[Finman]

https://entomologytoday.org/2014/05...ees-are-resilient-to-varroa-mites-and-nosema/

Interesting read

Text says that Africanized bees in America have no problems with varroa. But that is not true at all.
.