> Anyone agree with that???  I would have said that the opposite was true of Italians in the UK.  Just keep breeding no matter what the weather and require vast amounts of winter stores.  EFB is much more prevalent in SE England which has the most Italians.

It all hinges on whether what are being called "Italians" these days are the same as the original stock discovered in Italy. I suspect that modern "Italians" are strains which have been selected for other qualities such as rapid build up and yellow color. This selection may have been at the expense of other qualities, such as disease resistance and hardiness. Human selection of livestock frequently has negative side effects. However, this excerpt from Morley Pettit of Ontario, Canada seems to echo the observations of E F Phillips in NY state. 

Queens sold by a number of queen
breeders have been tested cooperatively by different beekeepers in Ontario under the
writer’s direction. These tests have been made with particular reference to resistance to
European Foulbrood. The results have been published by the Ontario Department of
Agriculture in a bulletin entitled “Some Results of Cooperative Experiments on Races of
Bees to Determine Their Power to Resist European Foulbrood.”

“The conclusion reached by the writer with reference to races and strains of bees is that
resistance is more a matter of vigor than of race or strain. Results of tests show, however,
that common black bees are exceedingly poor resisters, and that Carniolans are not
generally as good as Italians. . . . Evidence in favor of leather-colored Italians is perhaps
stronger than that for the yellower strains. . . .

“So far as it can be seen by the careful observer who is not a bacteriologist, the disease
diminishes in virulence after it has been in a particular locality for a few years. It is also
true that the resistance of the bees increases as a result of natural selection or ‘survival of
the fittest.’ On the other hand, apiaries previously Italianized and carefully watched when
the disease arrives are not so badly affected.”

INVESTIGATION AND INSTRUCTION IN BEEKEEPING
By Morley Pettit, Provincial Apiarist, Guelph, Ontario (1916)

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