(bold emphasis added by me)
Is this true? Are there any Comparison Tests like this for (the pure) AMM's, especially the local eco-types (am I using the correct terminology - to differentiate between the dominant Irish eco-type and say Brittany AMM eco-type?), compared to other strains of bees (what's the scientific term I should be using instead of strains, is it sub-specie for AMM and then 'eco-type of sub-specie', bit of a mouthful, I don't want to use the term 'race' to describe bees, we don't do it for dogs or sheep!)
In BeeBreed there are a number of Amm groups:
A.m. mellifera
Code Name
DE-24 Landesverband Brandenburgischer Imker e.V./Mellifera
DE-28 Landesverband der Imker Mecklenburg Vorpommern e.V./Mellifera
DE-34 Imkerverband Sachsen-Anhalt e.V./Mellifera
DE-35 Landesverband Schleswig-Holsteinischer und Hamburger Imker e.V./Mellifera
CH-50 Verein Schweizerischer Mellifera Bienenfreunde
NO-1 Norway/Mellifera
AT-1 AMZ (Austrian Mellifera Züchter)
BE-2 Limburgse Zwarte Bij (LZB vzw)
PL-1 Poland/SmartBees/Mellifera
FR-1 France/Mellifera
The decision of which groups to set up are usually done at the national level as there is quite a bit of co-ordination to do. I am not aware of any that restricts itself to ONLY those bees available within their own area though. The gene pool would probably be too small. The groups I'm aware of all operate at the "race" level but with a Geographic slant. For example, the Dutch group (which I am a member of) breeds carnica but the line is open i.e. It uses the best examples of carnica from other countries as well as their own. This is how the breeding values are so high. In 2017, they even sent NL-Line virgin queens to Wangerooge (German island in the Wadden Sea) because the drone mothers being used were better. In 2018, they had drone mothers of German origin on the Dutch island of Vlieland. What I am trying to illustrate is that the heritable traits (as expressed in breeding values) are more important than artificial national considerations.
There are 4 German groups in that list though (DE is the ISO country prefix). I am not sure why there are so many. It may be that it is a hang-over from the previous structure, which was predominantly German with local associations, or they may have different breeding objectives. I don't know although the fact that they are all e.V. organisations means they have independent legal status.