Hi all

I have had an offlist message from Olda that asked about the degree of 
investigation...

As I think the reply is relevant to the thread on identification of AHB, 
I copy my reply below...

****
Hi Olda

 > How many parameters on the wing you measured? One? Two? Even if CI
 > AND DS are correct, it doesn't guarantie that the bee is mellifera
 > mellifera.

I fully agree, at various times I have used a number of different 
parameters. The degree of investigation in any one case depends on the 
amount of information you already know about the subject colony.

If you are looking at a colony from a breeding program, with a known 
pedigree, it is possible to use smaller sample numbers and fewer criteria.

If the subject colony's history is totally unknown, you have to put in 
more effort to get sensible conclusions.


 > The only safe morphometry method is DAWINO.

I don't believe any morphometry method is totally 'safe' and should 
never be relied upon without correlation with behaviour and/or DNA, but 
in general the more work that is put in to collect the data the more you 
can rely on the results that the data shows.

However some DNA studies conducted about 3 years ago, concluded  that 
only three colonies contained Italian genes out of 370 that were 
previously thought to be AMM by behaviour and morphometry.

So a combination of DNA behaviour and morphometry can give sound 
conclusions and behaviour and morphometry on their own can give results 
of 0.0081% errors.

This information has to be tempered by the fact that we only have a test 
that can definitely identify Ligustica genes, there may have been 
contamination from other races like Carnica that did not show up, but 
such errors are likely to be of similar order to the ones established 
for definite.
****

I should add that it is common to use the body parts from 50 bees to 
make an assessment, but if you already know the details of the Queen and 
Drone parents, then a sample of 30 is considered OK as long as nothing 
unusual shows up, then you have to look again with bigger sample and 
more criteria.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
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