Peter Borst says, "We have nothing to lose . . ."  by open
importing.  Don't you suppose he would have said the same before
tracheal and varroa mites and small hive beetles arrived?  It is the
unknown pathogen which kills you!    Dan

Dan,
Of course not. I was just as concerned as everyone else, during the
80s, that we not import bees. I did not want to face the seemingly
insurmountable hurdles of Africanization, varroa, etc. that were
altering forever the practice of beekeeping elsewhere.

But on the downside, we were unable to import beneificial honey bee
stock to counter the potential narrowing of the genetic base in the
American type. I don't know that it had become so narrow as to cause
particular defects. See:

"evolutionary bottleneck development in A.A.Wenner & R.W.Thorp "The
honey bees of Santa Cruz Island", an isolated population  which
eventually succumbed to  varroa introduced as biocontrol" at:

http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/bcmay1993.htm


Several people have mentioned the potential for *new* pests that
could come in with honeybee imports. If this is true, I certainly
wouldn't want that any more than anyone else!  I merely meant that
the primary reasons for the original quarantine are no longer valid.
We already have AHB, varroa, and trachael mite.

And apparently, the US government felt it was worth going outside the
US for new breeding stock, when they went to Russia. Of course, these
bees were subjected to a rigorous quarantine system. In fact, there
are a variety of exotic insects being studied in quarantine
facilities in the US.

What is to be learned by past failures such as Warwick Kerr's experiment?
Either -- 1) be extremely careful or -- 2) don't try anything new?





--

Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>