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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 26 Nov 2016 11:46:31 -0500
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> Curious  Randy cited the African thing also,  how does the genetic type of bee and Varro both compare to our bees and Varro here?

This is hardly news, but in 2015:

There have been no reports
of high colony losses directly linked to
V. destructor mites and/or viruses (Muli et al.
2014; Pirk et al. 2014). The survival of African
honeybee colonies in the presence of
V. destructor , without chemical treatment, suggests
that honeybees may not be as threatened in
Africa or more resistant compared with other parts
of the world. 

Honeybee populations in Africa may have a
natural mechanism of resilience against many of
the introduced pathogens and parasites (Pirk et al.
2014). Compared to European honeybees,
African populations are genetically diverse (due
to the large wild population), have higher
swarming rates and smaller colonies and are less
commercialised

Increased research has to focus on the underlying
mechanisms of potential resistance of African honeybees.

Pirk, Christian WW, et al. "Honeybee health in Africa—a review." Apidologie (2015): 1-25.

* * *

comment:
I think the large unmanaged reservoir is crucial, as well as genetic diversity. I do not think that commercializing bees is a significant factor in their decline, because large scale beekeeping has been going on for 150 years. Folks like to blame humans for messing everything up, but there are other factors.

PLB

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