On Mon, 17 Oct 2005 14:23:31 -0700, J. Waggle wrote:


“……The SMR bees do not exist”  and other statements quoted below:

Whoa Nelly!!!

Actually they do, please see  http://members.aol.com/queenb95/smr.html and
furthermore, granted, the following statement is a true statement, “The
belief was that the bees somehow had the ability to cause infertility of
mites and suppressed mite reproduction, hence the acronym SMR.  But
research has shown that it was the hygienic trait being expressed.”

However, the statement, “WARNING: do not believe this research just yet!”
and “You will still have to wait for Bob, Jim & Co. to give 'valid
research blessings' before accepting this, it could be flawed and sloppy
research.” In my humble opinion is flawed.

Harbo & Harris published in 2003, “An Evaluation of Commercially-Produced
Queens That Have the Smr Trait”.  You may find an abbreviated version at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?
SEQ_NO_115=143809 . Harbo & Harris published Title: “The Smr Trait
Explained by Hygienic Behavior of Adult Bees” of which you gave the link
for the abbreviated version,
Development and Use of Mite-Resistance Traits in Honey-Bee Breeding,
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/Publications.htm?
seq_no_115=178712. This was published in the American Bee Journal as An
Evaluation Of Commercially-Produced Queens That Have The Smr Trait.
American Bee Journal. 2003. Vol. 143, Pgs. 213-216, Edition #3.

I doubt that Harbo and Harris would ever publish “flawed and sloppy
research”, their work has helped our industry immensely. Perhaps you could
take note of the title,  “The Smr Trait Explained by Hygienic Behavior of
Adult Bees”. Back in 1999 Dr. M. Spivak published in the January issue of
the “American Bee Journal” her acknowledgement that her line of hygienic
bees would be penned, “Minnesota Hygienics”.  Dr. Spivak went on to say,”
My goal in breeding the hygienic line of bees was to demonstrate to the
beekeeping industry that this behavior is a mechanism of resistance to
American foulbrood and chalkbrood, and is one mode of defense against
Varroa mites.”

Getting to the point: In 2003 it was already known from Dr. Spivak and
before her, Dr. Steve Tabor, that genetic traits for hygienic behavior
existed; it simply was not IMHO assumed that additional genetic traits for
SMR were known to exist side by side.  The 2003 work became accepted and
understood and as thoughts of additional hygienic traits evolved folks
thought that there was more to the idea of SMR. For several years it was
thought that there was another mechanism of the SMR behavior existing as
another hygienic trait. (trait and behavior are not the same mule) This
was brought to the point of publication in the May 2005 ABJ,
under “Procedings of the American Bee Research Conference”, on the same
page as Ibrahim and Spivak’s published abbreviated version, “HONEY BEE
RESISTANCE TO VARROA: HOW MUCH OF THE SMR TRAIT (SIC) IS DUE TO HYGIENIC
BEHAVIOR?”  from which I quote the first line, “- Suppression of Mite
Reproduction (SMR) is an important, heritable mechanism of bee resistance
to ‘Varroa destructor’, (Harbo & Harris, 1999 J Econ. Entomol. 90:893-897.

The summary of Ibrahim and Spivak’s published work gives the following
statement, “… bees bred for SMR do detect and remove mite-infested pupae,
and tend to remove those pupae infested with reproductive mites, leaving
pupae with mites that have low reproductive success.”

So, I say in my humble opinion and predicated upon the referenced
published research given above that, the statement, “The SMR bees do not
exist”, is without foundation.

Sincerely,

Chuck Norton

Norton’s Nut & Honey Farm
Reidsville, North Carolina

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