Review of Bee Health

Varroa: enfin un projet pour lutter contre l’ennemi numéro un des abeilles | Varroa: a project to fight against the enemy number one of the bees

August 23, 2017

Editor’s Note: Translated from the French original.

From: Le Quotidien (Luxembourg)
Around 20 scientists from all over Europe are meeting until Wednesday in Brandenburg. (Photo: Editpress)

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This twenty men and women come from all over Europe. Their mission: to participate in the project of genetic improvement of bees, to make them more resistant to their main enemy: varroa. This mite, which parasites larvae, nymphs and adult bees, is native of Asia, where the bees resist … unlike their European cousins! As a result, our beekeepers fear these little vampires who participate in the hecatomb of our friends foragers …

But some European bees are resistant to varroa. Starting from this observation, the Luxembourg beekeeper Paul Jungels launched the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) project: “It is a question of raising bees that are resistant to varroa. I hope that in a few years we will have hives that will be 100% resistant to varroa! “, Explains this forerunner, who has been experimenting with this selection process since 1994, constantly improving it.

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