Brood affects hygenic behaviour in honeybees

[SDM]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30212863

It seems this has happened almost by accident so far.
I wonder if testing for particularly responsive brood will enhance the development of VSH.

 

[Beefriendly]

It seems to be a major pathway in Apis cerana, where worker brood commit suicide when infected with varroa and the "scent" means the dead larvae are removed. It's one of the ways they have evolved to coexist with varroa.

 

[SDM]

Larval suicide sounds like a very high cost method of control

 

[Beefriendly]

Works for cerana....

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep27210

 

[SDM]

Yes but varroa is restricted to drone brood only in Apis cerana. I'm not sure it would be effective if worker brood was sacrificed.

 

[Beefriendly]

It would, as you would have much lower numbers of breeding varroa, as in A. cerana.
Our levels of varroa are much higher than those found in cerana colonies because currently there is no check to their growth rates.
If it works for cerana it will work mellifera.
Assuming, of course, that the genetics exists for such a pathway of control in meliffera.

 

[For want of a better word]

It would, as you would have much lower numbers of breeding varroa, as in A. cerana.
Our levels of varroa are much higher than those found in cerana colonies because currently there is no check to their growth rates.
If it works for cerana it will work mellifera.
Assuming, of course, that the genetics exists for such a pathway of control in meliffera.

Would not be too difficult to splice the sequence into the mellifera genome...
then you could patent the varroa resistant super bee and make a killing in bee supplying!

Still have CBPV/DFW/Danish pastry virus to contend with... but killing off varroa could stop one of the vectors of disease??

Yeghes da