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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Baton Rouge, Louisiana » Honey Bee Lab » Research » Research Project #429840

Research Project: Breeding Better Bees: Creating Improved Honey Bees with VSH-based Varroa Resistance to Foster Adoption in the USA

Location: Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics, and Physiology Research

Project Number: 6050-21000-015-006-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 30, 2015
End Date: Sep 30, 2019

Objective:
1. Establish a U.S. breeding group to develop honey bees selected for high resistance to Varroa mites and high functionality in commercial beekeeping for pollination and honey production. 2. Select honey bees for high expression of Varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) by evaluation of non-reproduction of Varroa mites in queen lines that have been preselected in field tests by several partners of the group. Combine high-VSH-expression bee lines into a closed population. This population will provide the basis for further selection for desirable beekeeping characteristics.

Approach:
1. The Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) Breeding Group will be a private-public partnership that will enable skilled bee breeders to pool resources (e.g., knowledge, genetic diversity of bees, number of colonies under selection, number of test locations) to enhance selection ability. The Cooperator will manage the group’s activities. 2. ARS has selected bees with apparently useful Varroa resistance and beekeeping functionality. The Cooperator will continue to refine VSH levels of honey bee lines provided by ARS by testing for non-reproduction of Varroa mites. A minimum of 30 refined lines will be combined into a closed population and the population will be propagated to a minimum of 150 colonies. This population will be used for maintenance and subsequent selection.