No abstract

This study uses sibling analysis to measure the heritability in honey bees, Apis mellifera L., of characteristics that have been associated with resistance to the mite, Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans. Twenty-eight uniform colonies of bees were established on 13 May in Baton Rouge, LA, each with 1 kg of mite-infested bees and a queen. The 28 unrelated queens in these colonies were divided into 7 groups of 4 based on the insemination of 4 queens with the same mixture of semen from 1 of 7 sire colonies. After worker progeny from these queens had replaced the initial bee populations, a colony was related as a full sister to the other 3 colonies in its sire group and unrelated to the other 24 colonies. Heritability (h 2) was 1.24 for proportion of mites in brood, 0.65 for hygienic behavior, 0.89 for the duration of the capped period, 0.46 for suppression of mite reproduction, and 0.00 for physical damage to mites (measured by the presence of physically broken or dented mites on the bottom board). These results suggest that it should be possible to enhance the expression of 4 of these 5 characteristics with selective breeding of bees, thus reinforcing conÞdence in our ability to breed honey bees for resistance to V. jacobsoni.

No abstract

-This report describes a systematic approach to selecting honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) for resistance to Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans. The equation (P 1 (ab) n = P 2 ) describes the growth of the mite population in a colony of honey bees that has a constant supply of worker brood. P 1 and P, are the initial and final mite populations, a is population change while mites are in brood cells, b is population change outside brood cells and n is the number of reproductive cycles of the mite. By comparing the growth of mite populations in each colony (P 2 /P 1 ), one can determine which bees are more resistant to mites. The values of a, b and n provide details about the growth of the mite population by identifying which portion of the mite's reproductive cycle was affected. Selection should be based on specific characteristics of bees rather than on general changes in mite populations. When specific characteristics of bees affect different components of the reproductive cycle of the mite, it may be possible to combine the characteristics to produce bees that are more resistant to mites. © Inra/DIB/AGIB/Elsevier, Paris

No abstract