Selective Breeding and Field Performance of Better Bred Bees with VSH | Frank Rinkevich, PhD

Frank Rinkevich, PhD joins us from the USDA-ARS Honeybee lab in Baton Rouge, LA to discuss selective breeding for resistance and Varroa Sensitive Hygiene. We discuss the history of the breeding program at the USDA and what beekeepers can expect as these genetic lines are made available through the Northern Queen Initiative (NQI, www.fightingthemites.com)
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[@jf7654]

One of the best breakdowns of VSH in a long time. The different mechanisms are so important to distinguish. I've used VSH and Hygenic interchangeably. Will change that.

[@researcherAmateur]

Question. Why is varroa detected in the brood ? Is it because the pupae emits some kind of pheromone.. if it's that than bees don't remove larva until gets older ?

[@nkapiariesjeffbeezos796]

Their goal is to remove reproductive mites not non reproductive mites.
The bees won’t know if there are reproductive till the bees are in the purple eye stage.
The bees need to wait to see which mites are non reproductive. It’s a desirable trait to have colonies only remove reproductive mites than all mites in larvae.

[@nkapiariesjeffbeezos796]

Yes, the bees can smell the varroa behind the capping
Not only can they smell the varroa, they can also tell the difference between sterile and reproductive, how cool 😎 is that

[@researcherAmateur]

@@nkapiariesjeffbeezos796 okay. Yes I understand. I was trying to ask is it some kind of wounded brood pheromone or they can smell varroa directly. But I think l get it now. Thanks

[@sbgmimedia]

Chemical detection triggers honey bee defense against a destructive parasitic threat
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33495646/