John wrote:
   Please, is there no one who will step forward with the true story ?  The
rumor  has been for decades that this was not triggered by an accidental
release, but that  queens were being bred and distributed from the imported
african stock. Does anyone  know the truth about this? - or is it academic
at this point?
Bob wrote:
A friend of mine worked at the Baton Rouge bee lab during the era of the
release. Later he became a commercial beekeeper and we became friends. We
have talked a great deal about Dr. Kerr. He says Dr. Kerr ALWAYS told him
the release was accidental. The whole release could have been prevented with
a queen/ drone trap on the hives.
Dr. Kerr created quite a stir later went he shipped semen to Baton Rouge.
What he in fact sent was semen from bees which he had bred the aggressive
gene out and isolated a important gene. If you search a post I did last year
(2000) you will find the year,month and page number of the American Bee
Journal article about Dr. Kerr shipping the semen. The article explains that
AHB were not sent as per rumor among beekeepers. I tried to pull the post up
from the archives but without luck. I looked through 20 years of ABJ to find
the information for the post giving the Dr. Kerr information. Maybe we can
repost for those interested.  I just received a call from my son his wife
has gave birth to my third grandson so headed to the hospital.
Sincerely,
Grandpa Harrison