Bee breeding is of course a continuous process, and one should not underestimate the practical difficulties of maintaining a desired strain of bee. In addition, inbreeding in any organism is in the long term, harmful, and due to their haplodiploid nature, honey bee populations lave less genetic diversity than that of many other groups of insects. Leslie Bailey of Rothamsted pointed out some years ago (Bailey, 1999) that much of the honey bee's inherent resistance to disease stems from its genetic diversity, so that breeding for resistance to one pest or disease may increase susceptibility to others. Inevitably, the process of bee breeding is time consuming and labour intensive, but it is to be hoped that we can significantly improve the hygienic behaviour of our own strain of bee. The degree to which such improved bees will ever be widely used is, however, dependant on the development of a significantly greater queen rearing industry than currently exists in the UK. Norman L Carreck, Breeding honey bees for varroa tolerance In book: Varroa - still a problem in the 21st century? International Bee Research Association *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html