-----Original Message-----
From:   Peter Borst [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Monday, February 04, 2002 12:40 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: What are the Bee of the Americas?

Hello All,
I have returned!  We had the worse ice storm on record last Wednesday. No power   or phone   till this evening. 

>There were populations of Apis mellifera of European descent present in
>South America long before Kerr brought over his colonies of African A.
>mellifera. Kerr's intention was to improve the breeding stock of the honey
>bees already present by crossing the local bees with bees better adapted to
>tropical conditions.I

Peter wrote:
Of course, the Europeans brought them (possibly as early as 1560) . My point was they were never any *competition* for the native bees, because they did so poorly in the tropics, being temperate climate bees. That is *why* Kerr brought scutellata to Brazil. He didn't know they would explode into this ecosystem as an invasive species. (I am letting him off easy here)

Dr. Kerr was a brilliant researcher.  He was the first to my knowledge to succeed in shipping frozen drone semen. He was adept at all methods of bee breeding and isolating genes. Many researchers at Baton Rouge wanted Dr. Kerr to join the USDA.  Public opinion kept Dr. kerr away. A now famous but then little known Baton Rouge researcher was close friend with Dr. Kerr and wanted to duplicate Kerrs research in Baton Rouge. He did get started but while away on vacation the USDA killed all his research bees. End of experiment. Only now can researchers really see the depth of Kerrs research into genes and bee breeding. The world was not ready  for Dr. Kerr and his ideas in the 60's . Only today can I understand most  of Kerrs bee breeding ideas. Kerr carefully planted *miss information* in my opinion about his research and his goals.  Only by my talking to friends and fellow researchers of Dr. Kerr of the time period have I been able to put together a picture of Dr. Kerrs goals at the time.
I do believe as Peter says above that Dr. Kerr underestimated the African Bees impact on the area.  If Dr. Kerr would have done his research in South Africa it is hard to imagine the steps forward bee research might have taken. I agree the release in Brazil caused many harms but will always believe Dr. Kerr was a brilliant bee researcher  and it is sad he will  be known for the release instead of his bee research.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison