I doubt the accuracy of both the quoted statements.

" First, the initial “sampling” of each subspecies chosen for importation consisted of a few tens to hundreds of queens, representing only a small fraction of the genetic diversity within each subspecies."

 A few tens to hundreds of imported queens will give the vast majority of useful genetic diversity from the sub species imported.  All that would likely be lost would be very rare alleles that have little to no impact on performance or even negative impact on performance.

"Secondly, only nine of the more than two dozen named Old World subspecies found within the species Apis mellifera were ever introduced into the Americas." 

Anyone who has hung around the small animal, fish and bird trade for the last sixty years like I have knows very well about the amount amount of undocumented smuggling that takes place routinely.    All you need to do is hang around a bar with a bunch of ethnic guys at a show and get them to talk and the stories are incredible.  Such smuggling happens in both directions routinely.  I find it impossible to think it did not happen with queens.  When my wife was raising canaries commercially she sold a lot of hens that were smuggled out of the country.  Of course the buyer never really came out and admitted that was the case and we did not want to hear it either as finding someone who wants 50 or more hens in one batch and is willing to pay more than the cost of the feed used to raise the bird is near impossible.  But, put two and two together and there was little room for doubt.  Seems there is quite a market in some countries for hens that have been intensely selected for productivity unlike about 99% of the hens on the market.  My guess is the cock offspring from those hens were smuggled back into the US to supply a few hunks of paper that are real currency.

Dick

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