> We had Mr. Jackson from the Texas inspection program do a session at the
> Nebraska
> Master Beekeepers in which they mounted wings on glass sides, enlarged them
> via
> a slide projector and measured wing veins (morphometrics) to quickly decide if
> EHB or AHB

Hi Dave -

While this sounds like a quick and easy way to determine EHB or AFB, the
FABIS procedure, to even be close to correct identification, has a
conditional warning stated in it. Since it uses size discriminate analysis,
it is therefore prone to misinterpretation. The warning is as follows:

"The sensitivity of this technique necessitates a warning. Ideally, users
should verify that the European bees in their area are similar to the
European bees in this study before these procedures are used to detect
Africanization. If the European bees are not similar, especially if they are
smaller, locally collected baseline data may be used to develop new
discriminant functions or at least be considered in evaluating results. Such
new functions would be more appropriate to the users' needs."

A tool used the wrong way can make matters worse. I mention this because
people talk as if it is easy to know the difference between AHB and EHB,
when it is really quite hard. Because of this, AHB can easily be exploited.

Regards,
Barry