I've been away a week and I don't know whether this thread has already
been picked up on. I think this sort of scenario needs very careful
thinking through. At the moment poisonous honey is virtually unheard of.
Could this have something to do with the bees inability to metabolise
substances that are poisonous to us? What might we do to this naturally
safe substance if we start giving bees the ability to metabolise
poisonous substances?
Just a thought.
 
Penny Munn
Lancashire/ Scotland
 ----------
* From: Garth
* To: [log in to unmask]
* Subject: Breeding bees resistant to organophosphate poisons
* Date: 18 November 1997 19:20
*
* Hi all
*
* I live near a railway line and have always marvelled at how the
* herbicides sprayed to kill grass and stuff on the sidelines never
* kills the lucerne(alfalfa) that has grown there as a result of seeds
* spilling of fodder being railed around.
*
* It turns out the the genes for resistance to herbicides have been
* cloned into many plants (i don't know if this alfalfa is of such a
* variety but it certainly is tough). As a result framers can spray
* herbicides on their crops to kill weeds.
*
* Now my question is, has this cloning been done on bees? It seems it
* would be quite easy say to breed drosophila (fruit flies) in the
* presence of various common pesticides, and seeing as the drosophila
* genome is as far as I know sequenced, to find out which genes have
* mutated to give the resistance and cut them out and put them into one
* of the sections of the A.m genome that have been sequenced. (so that
* it is put somewhere that will not break one of the important genes in
* the host).
*
* Then theoretically if everything goes right one would be able to
* produce huge numbers of cloned bees with pesticide resistance with no
* real danger of it ever being a bad move as bees live in single
* colonies and the normal methods for exterminating them do not of
* neccesity need conventional pesticides - ie can gas them. (It would
* be bad to put the same genes into say a flie as pesticides are useful
* in killing flies which lay eggs all over the place and don't make
* hives - wow imagine that - funnycomb)
*
* If one put in such genes for resistance it would mean that of
* neccesity they would have to be able to metabolise the poisons as
* well, as that genes would code for the enzymes to do that -  in other
* words it would increase the safety of the honey being sold as well.
* If it did not, at least it would be useful for pollination.
*
* Is such research being done??
*
* Just a thought.
*
* Keep well
*
* Garth
*
*  ---
* Garth Cambray       Kamdini Apiaries
* 15 Park Road        Apis melifera capensis
* Grahamstown         800mm annual precipitation
* 6139
* Eastern Cape
* South Africa               Phone 27-0461-311663
*
* 3rd year Biochemistry/Microbiology    Rhodes University
* In general, generalisations are bad.
* Interests: Flii's and Bees.
* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post in no way
* reflect those of Rhodes University.
*