> Getting back to importing bees and Nick Wallingford's letter.  I agree
> with what Nick says but how do you know if they are resistant if they have
> not been exposed to the disease?  I suspect that bees do not have any
> immune system and therefore any immunity or resistance must be genetic. I
> would conclude therefore that any restriction on breeding would not be the
> way forward.
 
What I was trying to get across was that some bee behaviours can be
bred for (and tested for) in the absence of the pest/disease you are
attempting to combat.  The easiest example that comes to mind is for
AFB resistance.  The hygenic behaviours of (1) uncapping and (2)
removing dead larvae are the things that we want our bees to be
doing.  But you don't have to infect the colony with AFB as part of
the breeding programme!  Instead, you can breed for AFB
'resistance' by selecting for these behaviours, and testing for them
rather than how they directly deal with AFB.
 
I'm not sure how many other such 'indirect' selection/testing methods
are useful in breeding bees, but I think they give an indication that
you don't *have* to have a particular pest/disease present in order
to provide bees that have 'resistance'.
 
 
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