Thanks Randy for the thoughtful update. 
 
I think what is important to note is there appears to be no real advantage to these bees over American sources other then the ability to timely fulfill contracts for almond pollination. Thus the importation is primarily for a business reason and NOT a honeybee health related or gene pool improvement.  If you feel the same then you might feel outrage that Sue Cobey had to wait over a decade to be allowed to import a tiny amount of semen to IMPROVE the GENETICS of US breeder queens. This is potentially a  scary precedence if we let pollination business interests take over and push honeybee health impacts aside but meanwhile a highly regarded bee researcher is held up with endless red tape. 

Fortunately there are some heavy hitters in ABF and AHPA who oppose this also and from what I gather are an impetus behind this review. 

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