[Juhani Lunden]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=2JJ9Jo3w7AM

https://undark.org/article/honeybee-fearsome-enemy-mite/

I had not heard about this project yet. In the video start Danielle Downey explains that this project supports a breeding project in Hawaji. I´m pretty sure it is Arista Foundation based project, which is lead by BartJan Fernhout.



Another article, varroa resistance work presented in a little wider angle: Weaver, Danka, BartJan Ferhout, Leonard Foster, Kaspar Bienefeld etc.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/breeders-toughen-bees-resist-deadly-mites

"Daniel Weaver, a bee breeder in Navasota, Texas, let the mite run wild in 1000 of his colonies. Just nine survived the first year, and from these he bred mite-resistant bees. "

"Kaspar Bienefeld, director of LIB. He hopes a genetic test will be available to breeders starting next year, at a cost of about $60 per test."


"Researchers predict that will change if the mite continues to develop resistance to amitraz, now the pesticide of choice in many countries. "If amitraz fails," Danka says, "the landscape changes overnight." Fernhout and other breeders want to be ready for the eventuality. They are close, they believe, to creating a world in which mite-resistance genes are widespread in honey bee populations, and beekeepers can set aside their failing pesticides. Fernhout, now 55, has a timeline in mind: "I just want to have resistant bees when I retire."

 

[Litsinger]

Great collection of articles, Juhani. I was particularly intrigued by the citizen science project described as Arista Bee Research:

"The newest group to follow in Harbo's footsteps is Arista Bee Research. One of its principal efforts has been to create a network of more than 100 bee breeders in Europe, mostly amateurs. (Some teams wear T-shirts boasting they are "Varroabusters!") Together, they have experimentally infested more than 1500 colonies with mites, then selected queens from the colonies that were good at VSH."

This sounds like a great way to both continuing to breed for resistance and avoid against inbreeding.

 

[Fusion_power]

The goal is admirable, but IMO, they are leaning too much on VSH traits where other mite resistance measures such as allogrooming are equally important in the long term.