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Date: | Fri, 8 Aug 2008 04:44:33 EDT |
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In a message dated 08/08/2008 03:00:08 GMT Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
I was not thinking of a breeding programme specifically aimed at DWV, or any
other virus for that matter. In assessing colonies I score them for a large
number of things, e.g. sacbrood, chalkbrood, deformed wings, paralysis,
tolerance of wax moth, as well as for temper and productivity.
At recent lecture from Sue Cobey (who knows a thing or two about selective
breeding) she stressed how important it is to have a wide gene pool and not
to select for a particular characteristic as too much genetic material will be
lost. You end up with otherwise useless bees which are - in your example -
resistant to DWV.
She suggests (if I can decipher my scrawled notes) selecting for maybe 7
traits and scoring each colony 0-5 for each of the desired traits. Multiply the
numbers together to highlight the outstanding ones (and, by extension, those
to be culled).
Chris
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