09-28-2012, 03:06 PM
Going on 5 years ago I became interested in American
Chestnut trees. They were hugely important and prolific on the mainland until around 1900 when a blight was imported that nearly wiped them out. Various groups are trying to develop blight resistant crosses with the asian chestnut that is resistant such that the cross retains the desirable characteristics of the american variety and the resistance of the asian variety. My point is that with each generation they intentionally expose the crosses to the blight. As you might expect, almost all of them die. That is depressing but necessary.
It is unclear to me what it is that makes Hawaii a good place to breed bees for export. It can't be that our bees are resistant to anything. They are probably some of the most genetically vulnerable bees as far as resistance to mites is concerned, because they have not had to resist them until now. In fact, I have read that there is a strain of russian bees that have been exposed to mites for 150 years and those bees do exhibit substantial resistance to mites, obtained only because of their exposure.
I honestly don't know what if anything makes our bees special. It may only be that we have a year round growing season. If our bees are healthy in the absence of any mites, viruses, or other parasites then that is just a disaster waiting to happen. If they are healthy despite having pests, I could understand nobody wanting to receive those pests in the mail but on the other hand truly resistant bees would be worth their weight in gold, as would truly resistant chestnuts, bananas, or any other species of agricultural or aesthetic value.
Just addressing a general undercurrent of "Now Hawaii is screwed". We may have been screwed anyway and now Hawaii has received the final shove into the pool that everyone else is already in.
Chestnut trees. They were hugely important and prolific on the mainland until around 1900 when a blight was imported that nearly wiped them out. Various groups are trying to develop blight resistant crosses with the asian chestnut that is resistant such that the cross retains the desirable characteristics of the american variety and the resistance of the asian variety. My point is that with each generation they intentionally expose the crosses to the blight. As you might expect, almost all of them die. That is depressing but necessary.
It is unclear to me what it is that makes Hawaii a good place to breed bees for export. It can't be that our bees are resistant to anything. They are probably some of the most genetically vulnerable bees as far as resistance to mites is concerned, because they have not had to resist them until now. In fact, I have read that there is a strain of russian bees that have been exposed to mites for 150 years and those bees do exhibit substantial resistance to mites, obtained only because of their exposure.
I honestly don't know what if anything makes our bees special. It may only be that we have a year round growing season. If our bees are healthy in the absence of any mites, viruses, or other parasites then that is just a disaster waiting to happen. If they are healthy despite having pests, I could understand nobody wanting to receive those pests in the mail but on the other hand truly resistant bees would be worth their weight in gold, as would truly resistant chestnuts, bananas, or any other species of agricultural or aesthetic value.
Just addressing a general undercurrent of "Now Hawaii is screwed". We may have been screwed anyway and now Hawaii has received the final shove into the pool that everyone else is already in.