Perhaps Russian honey bees were the most varroa resistant honey bees in the
study described by Dr. Oldroyd, but the press release sort of suggests that
Russian honey bees are the most varroa resistant bees available.  These two
studies report 5 years of research (3 in stationary apiaries and 2 in
commercial pollination outfits) showing that they are not always the most
varroa resistant:


Danka, R., Harris, J., Ward, K. and Ward, R. (2008) Status of bees with the
trait of varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) for varroa resistance. *Am.
Bee J.*148: 51-54.

Danka, R.G., Harris, J.W., Villa, J.D. 2011. Expression of varroa sensitive
hygiene (VSH) in commercial VSH honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae). *J. Econ.
Entomol. *104(3):745-749.

Danka, R.G., de Guzman, L.I., Rinderer, T.E., Sylvester, H.A., Wagener,
C.M., Bourgeois, A.L., Harris, J.W. and Villa, J. D. (2012) Functionality
of *Varroa*-resistant honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) when used in
migratory beekeeping for crop pollination.  *J. Econ. Entomol.* 105(2):
313-321.

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