> A University study in southern Mexico has found that the reproduction of
varroa
> mites is closely related to the release of certain pheromones by the honey
> bees. I wonder if SMR bees have a disjunction of some type of the
pheromone
> which triggers reproduction of the varroa mites. I will try to contact
those
> researchers on this subject and post their reply later on. This is
certainly a
> fascinating subject on the fight against varroa and worth pursuing.

Hi Dr. Pedro,

Good to hear from you.  I'll explain a bit more and also address bob's
comments.

The SMR mechanism was not explained, but the method of selection was.

Harbo simply pulls out 200 worker pupae that are a little past the eye
colour stage and examines them for mites.  The SMR bees will have only the
(prospective) mother mite(s) -- and no offspring attached.  An obvious
additional indication is that the white fecal spot often detaches from the
cell and is found adhered to the pupa.  If I understood correctly, this does
not usually happen in non-SMR bees.

Harbo used queen(s) mated to a single drone to refine his stock and achieved
these results in only a few (I forget how many -- was it eight?)
generations.

Spivak spoke very highly of SMR in her talk.  The SMR bees are apparently
much more resistant to varroa than her hygienic stock, which has some
anti-varroa powers, but not a lot.  However, please note that there are no
claims made for hygienic  behaviour in Harbo's stock, and there are no
claims made about other desirable traits either.  His SMR bees simply do not
support varroa reproduction.  Period.

He is planning to release breeders to queen suppliers so they can
incorporate this trait into their lines.  It is also possible that breeders
will simply identify this trait in their existing lines and select for it --
assuming that it is not strongly linked to some unacceptable characteristic.

allen