So maybe a better analogy would be Scottish wild cats, and you're arguing that introducing a load of domestic toms is fine as they're the same species and can inter breed.
There's no doubt in my mind that small pockets of virtually native wild cats and honey bees are going to be a thing of the past unless we take some steps to help save them.
Beekeeping is strangely behind the times with the thinking on this, fisheries is a great example of how more enlightened attitudes are helping preserve native fish stocks, where only indigenous fish are allowed to be stocked in our rivers and lakes, unless they're infertile eg triploid trout.
Yes, that's a somewhat better analogy. Still not entirely comparable- for example it's possible to neuter domestic toms and queens and possible to keep domestic cats relatively enclosed such as with catios, which benefits a lot of prey species. These alternatives are not possible with bees. In addition, recent plans tend to include reintroduction from European populations which are the same species- as for bees- although the Scottish Wildcat has been isolated from them for the last 10,000 years (nice parallel), yet there is recognition that whilst some Scottish specific gene patterns may be lost or diluted, the gene pool will become more diverse and thus more robust as a result. This fits with most definitions of healthy gene pools I've come across but flies in the face of the claims made regarding AMM and imported bees of the same species weakening the AMM 'fitness'/similar.
The wildcat analogy also doesn't answer the contrary claims that AMM are both threatened by imports and AMM are 'not going away'- basically, is there
actually a need whereas the evidence with Scottish Wildcats is pretty conclusive*. Either they have this supposed separate mating flight height/selection of drones to mate with/local area mating/something else thus can keep going by themselves, or they don't and are threatened by imports- in which case the previously mentioned study about AMM genes persisting needs to be explained.
*Interestingly, I think there may have been a paper lately suggesting the hybridisation of wildcats only became an issue in the last sixty years even though domestic and feral cats have been around for centuries.
Fisheries again, a good system for fisheries but not comparable for bees as fertile queens are needed to produce workers. Also complicated as things like rainbow trout are a distinct species which could outcompete native species. I suppose if there was a way to make drones from imported queens infertile then this might be an option but I suspect this would either wipe out any hybrid colonies (thus not preserving any AMM genes either and probably dropping the overall AMM population) or, if AMM are actually selectively mating, have no effect beyond making people pay more for non AMM bees and encourage illegal imports thus increase risk of new diseases. However, this would still require a clear demonstration of necessity which I think is lacking with the current claims made.
