I wrote and asked Jose what the chances are that we could get an up to date
evaluation of current US stock.

>> We have been discussing tracheal mites again on BEE-L, and I'm wondering
>> when that tracheal mite susceptibility study was done, and if there are
>> plans to repeat it in the future?

> The chart that you refer to was produced from evaluations of emerging
> brood from breeder colonies in the spring of '99 (published in ABJ,
> 2000).  A formal rerun of colonies from the same anonymous sources was
> never planned and probably would not be publishable in peer-reviewed
> journals.  However, I have tested through time, colonies from two
> sources in that study, and from a few new ones.  Given that the sources
> are to remain anonymous, I can say the following and you can quote me on
> it:
>
> One source has continued to show uniform resistance.  One source
> continues to show very large variability (spanning the range between the
> resistant and susceptible standards).  One new source shows high
> variability and no improvement.  And, one new source has surprisingly
> gone from showing fairly uniform resistance to being highly variable.
> The bottom line is we still have unresolved issues with genetic
> susceptibility to tracheal mites.
>
> One anecdote to point out that beekeepers may not even be compensating
> for susceptibility with appropriate treatments.  A beekeeper checked two
> extra queens and attendants for tracheal mites received from a queen
> breeder in the southeast.  Both queens and some of the attendants had
> tracheal mites.  In order for that to happen, in my experience, tracheal
> mites need to be at moderate to high levels in mating nucs, and this
> should not be happening in 2007, especially in the south!

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************