wade,
many thanks for the link to abc news,
he in teh middle east we've had varroa sonce early 80's and they sure killed a lot of bees, until very recently, all "wild bees" in the region had dissapeared, the last 2 or 3 years we have been seeing swarms in the mountains, that is bees, living without any varroa treatment.
however, scientifically, they do not refer to them as varroa resistant bees but rather as varroa tolerant bees, because a small number of varroa mites still exists on them.
it's still a grey area, with the "russian bees" too, and we have to be very careful importing them because as they tolerate varroa and keep it's population at a low level in the hives, other bee races in the region will suffer a lot from the constant infestation of mites all year round.
what do u think?

baxter