At one time, there were bees bred in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan that had a very good reputation.  I understand that the strain has been lost.

"https://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=ind2106&L=BEE-L&P=R81685&X=OEAC2036F58AE688317"

I think, also that the AFB resistance efforts in Alberta and elsewhere have skewed the population towards lower AFB susceptibility.  

Either that, or some other new malady has put pressure on and eliminated the most susceptible colonies that would maintain a reservoir of concentration disease spores above the infection threshold for normal colonies. .

In breeding IMO we need not target resistance or other perfections so much as discard the colonies that show susceptibility.  That is  far easier and less likely to throw out some baby with then bathwater.

It is far easier to identify and eliminate what we see as bad than to spot greatness since there are so many things that can make a particular colony perform well.

If we discard some poor performers, nothing of value is lost but the average goes up.

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