Test For Trachial Mites Available

WASHINGTON - Mar 6/01 - STAT -- If the start of trachial mite testing services in the United States have the same impact as those offered in Ontario, Canada, the mite-to-bee ration could be slashed from 13 to 1.5 mites per bee.

The test is aimed against parasitic tracheal mites, Acarapis woodi. In large numbers the pest can weaken or kill honey bees by clogging their airways.

Chemical controls are available. But experts agree the best long-term solution is to spread genetic resistance traits to the entire U.S. honey bee population, whose crop pollination is a $15 billion yearly asset to the nation's agriculture.

Under an agreement called a memorandum of understanding (MOU), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologists have provided Edwin Holcombe, owner of Backwood Apiaries in Shelbyville, Tennesse, beekeeper with the scientific expertise necessary to commercially test at least 15 breeder colonies from 10 clients on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The testing service will incorporate techniques Danka and a colleague, ARS entomologist Jose Villa, used to characterize mite resistance levels in 83 breeder colonies managed by eight commercial queen bee breeders in Hawaii, California, Texas, Louisiana and Virginia.

Specifically, they tested young worker bees from the breeder colonies and compared them to bees from colonies known to be either resistant or susceptible. The variability was surprising: Of the surveyed colonies, two-thirds were mite-resistant, while one-fourth were clearly susceptible.