MAINTAINING AND DEVELOPING VARROA-TOLERANT HONEY BEE SURVIVORS AS INDICATED BY SELECTIVE BREEDING PARAMETERS
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Abstract
The maintaining and developing of varroa-tolerant honey bee survivors were achieved via selective breeding at the apiary attached to the Faculty of Agriculture-Ain Shams University. This was adopted using Artificial Insemination for both selected and unselected (control) parents and completed till the fourth generation. The results showed that the accumulation reduction of infestation percentages by varroa increased from one generation to the second. These infestation percentages were 11.4%, 26.2%, 34.9% and 43.4% for the first, the second, the third and the fourth generations, respectively. When the realized heritability (effectiveness of selection) rates were estimated, it demonstrates a slightly high level for the third generation (rh˛= 0.68) than the other three tested generations i.e.: rh˛= 0.52 for the first, 0.44 for the second and 0.55, for the fourth generation. In addition, it appears that the third generation harbour the best values of selection differential, intensity of selection and response to selection.