In this study, honey bees were sampled from managed apiaries on the island of Dominica, West Indies, to determine whether they had any African maternal ancestry, and to begin to understand their health status.   

The levels of V. destructor  mites in the sampled colonies were relatively low, with only apiary J in 2015, and apiaries C, H, and I in 2016 exceeding the three mites per 100 bees threshold above which it is recommended to treat colonies for varroa control.  

Dominican beekeepers do not monitor their colonies regularly to assess varroa levels and do not treat colonies regularly against varroa (Garth Clark, pers. comm.), probably because there is no chemical method currently approved for use on the island (Reginald Thomas, per. comm.).   

Of the 45 colonies surveyed, workers from 38 colonies (84.4% of the total) exhibited the M4 haplotype, which belongs to the west European A. m. mellifera  subspecies. Workers from the remaining seven colonies (15.6% of the total) exhibited the C1 haplotype, which belongs to the north Mediterranean subspecies A. m. ligustica . We did not find any colonies with the African haplotype A. m. scutellata .   

One surprising finding from this study was that none of the sampled colonies were Africanized by maternal descent. Given the aggressive temperament of many of the colonies sampled, we hypothesized that some, if not all of the colonies, would exhibit A. m. scutellata  maternal ancestry. 

Juliana Rangel, Alejandra Gonzalez, Marla Stoner, Alyssa Hatter & Brenna E. Traver (2018): Genetic diversity and prevalence of Varroa.destructor , Nosema.apis , and N. ceranae in managed honey bee (Apis.mellifera ) colonies in the Caribbean island of Dominica, West Indies, Journal of Apicultural Research

https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2018.1494892

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