Hello All,
Campos raises an issue which has been blazing away by phone between me an  a
queen breeder.

I need to leave every word in this quote for meaning!

>It is not what I would expected from a "hygienic" behavior. AFAIK, when
dead brood are found, hygienic bees usually take them out, as quickly and
far from the hive as possible.

BINGO! You win first prize! Exactly what the Marla Spivak hygienic bees do!

>. But would eating the (parasitized, possibly diseased) brood be as good to
improve the colony's health?

> we are not looking at the same kind of stimulus when we watch the
"traditional" HYG and the this "new" specialized HYG (SMR),
although the effects might well be the same.

The effects are the same!

Wow Campos! You hit the nail directly on the head!  I could not have
explained better myself!

>cannibalism, triggered by some special scent dispersed by the pupa or the
varroa brood, that makes the pupa "tasty", much like diploid drones.

Exactly like diploid ! Now we are at the problem. In my opinion Dr. Harbo
bowed to the pressure that *all we are seeing* is cannibalism of parasitized
brood removed in exactly the same way as diploid brood.

Which is the argument of my queen breeder friend. A far more heated argument
than the discussion on BEE-L!

My side has been the queens have been inbred to a point the brood is diploid
trying to enhance the trait. the reason why when you outcross to 25% SMR THE
POOR BROOD VIABILITY disappears.

Those are the two big issues! If the research community can prove with
testing that the Harbo SMR line shotgun brood pattern is not caused by the
normal (in every hive in the world) cannibalism of diploid brood in the SMR
trait carrying colonies I will submit to the hypothesis SMR is simply the
eating of paratizied brood. Which means the suppression of mite reproduction
is done by the eating of the brood exactly like the eating of diploid brood.

When varroa becomes food for bees the problem of varroa could end!

In my observation hives hygienic bees pile up the dead brood  (other than
diploid). They carry around when the entrance is closed looking for a way to
fly out.

In SMR queen headed hives the bees eat the problem brood .Not found on the
bottom board in the OB hive.

I have no proof either way and expect none exists at this time! One would
have to catch a bee eating the brood and then test to see if diploid! I do
know through history the brood the bees eat always is the diploid brood

UNLESS THE HIVE IS STARVING AND THEN BROOD CAN BE CANNIBALIZED.

João  Thanks for the post! Shows you are looking close at the issue instead
of simply listening to the rhetoric!

Bob












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