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From: "ARS News Service" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "ARS News List" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Mite-Resistant Honey Bees
Date: Tue, Dec 7, 1999, 6:40 AM
STORY LEAD:
Scientists Comb Hives for Mite-Resistant Honey Bees
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Marcia Wood, (510) 559-6070, [log in to unmask]
December 7, 1999
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Beekeepers can produce and maintain colonies of domesticated honey bees that
are resistant to varroa mites, one of the insects' worst enemies, according
to nearly five years of tests by Agricultural Research Service scientists in
Tucson, Ariz. Varroa mites are eight-legged, blood-sucking parasites that
have decimated hives of the domesticated honey bee, Apis mellifera, in
nearly every state.
Eric H. Erickson of the ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson led
the Arizona study, in which about 190,000 bees were analyzed. The scientists
populated three research apiaries with survivor bees from Arizona hives not
treated with mite-killing chemicals called miticides. To see if the colonies
would become naturally infested, the scientists kept the hives free of the
miticides. Then, the researchers determined whether the bees had been
attacked by mites. Colonies of susceptible bees were removed and replaced
with progeny from the mite-tolerant colonies. The test hives averaged only 7
mites per 100 bees at the end of about four years of this selective
breeding. In some years, some hives were mite free.
The ARS experiment, reported in the December 1999 issue of the American Bee
Journal, provides more evidence that beekeepers and breeders can keep hives
relatively free of mites through selective breeding to populate apiaries
with mite-tolerant stock. The scientists recommend that beekeepers regularly
inspect their colonies for mite resistance and then select queens--for
breeding--from the colonies with the lowest mite populations. Some
beekeepers and breeders are already doing this. And scientists in Germany
and Russia, for instance, have also found Apis mellifera hives that are
naturally resistant to the mites.
Erickson did the work with Anita H. Atmowidjojo of the University of Arizona
and commercial beekeeper Lenard H. Hines of Sierra Vista, Ariz. According to
Erickson, it is relatively easy to find varroa-tolerant colonies in
commercial hives and to produce and maintain varroa-tolerant honey bees.
Currently, miticides are the principal control. The new findings offer
beekeepers another new option for strengthening their hives' mite
resistance. What's more, ARS announced in August that mite-tolerant queens,
descended from honey bees the agency imported from Russia, would be
commercially available next year. ARS scientists in Baton Rouge, La., led by
Thomas E. Rinderer, imported and tested the mite-tolerant Russian honey
bees.
The Agricultural Research Service is USDA's chief research agency.
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Scientific contacts: Eric H. Erickson, ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center,
200 East Allen Rd., Tucson, AZ 85719, phone (520) 670-6481, ext. 104, fax
(520) 670-6493, [log in to unmask], and Thomas E. Rinderer, ARS Honey
Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Unit, 1157 Ben Hur Rd., Baton
Rouge, LA 70820, phone (225) 767-9280, fax (225) 766-9212,
[log in to unmask]
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