permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] mite resistant bees through nutritional crossbreeding
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 11:59:14 +0000
From: Joe Nessim <jnessj@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Breeding the Mite-Resistant Honeybee by Nutritional Crossbreed Technology

Xian-bing XIEa, c, Wen-jun PENGb and Zhi-jiang ZENGa, ,


aHoneybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 
330045, P.R. China
bInstitute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 
Beijing 100093, P.R. China
cQuanzhou Normal University, Quanzhou 362000, P.R. China
Available online 1 July 2008.


References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must 
purchase this article.

Abstract
Mite (Varroa destructor) is one of the most serious parasite threats to the honey bee (Apis mellifera) reared in China. 
The beekeepers mainly use the drug to control and kill the mite in the past years, but the honey products may be 
contaminated and the mite is becoming drug-resistant. The main idea of this paper is to research the possibility of 
mite-resistant honeybee rearing by nutritional crossbreed. The larvae (Apis mellifera ligustica) are bred with the royal 
jelly of Apis carana carana, and then the morphological index of the worker generation, genotypic frequency and gene 
frequency of the MDH II, genetic resemblance, and mite resistance are measured. The results show that: compared to the 
parent workers, the proboscis length, anterior wing area, the total length of the third and fourth dorsal plate of the 
abdomen, the length of the fourth dorsal plate of the tuberculum, the area of the sixth abdominal segment, and the area 
of wax mirrors are significantly different, b
 ut the differences in the brachium index, dactylus index, and wing claw are not significant. Moreover, there are some 
mutations in the genotypic frequency and gene frequency of the MDH II. The mite resistance of the nutritional crossbreed 
worker is significantly higher. The morphological, physical, and biochemical characters, genetic resemblance, and the 
mite-resistant ability of the worker generation can be changed by nutritional crossbreeding. Nutritional crossbreeding 
can be a new way to breed the honeybee.