genetic resistance to varroa

[Dr Mark Goodwin]

Hi

It may has past notice, but Dr James Sainsbury, from Plant and Food research, has done some exciting research that is the closest thing that has been done anywhere in the world to make varroa go away. He compared varroa levels in hives led by queens with two sets of a particular gene and queens without the genes. He got a significant decrease in varroa levels. The genes are naturally found in NZ and you only need a wing clipping to test a queen. If the same experiment was done on a site where the mating's were controlled so the drones also had a high frequency of the gene, is is very probable that this will be enough to make varroa go away.

 

[Otto]

Hi

It may has past notice, but Dr James Sainsbury, from Plant and Food research, has done some exciting research that is the closest thing that has been done anywhere in the world to make varroa go away. He compared varroa levels in hives led by queens with two sets of a particular gene and queens without the genes. He got a significant decrease in varroa levels. The genes are naturally found in NZ and you only need a wing clipping to test a queen. If the same experiment was done on a site where the mating's were controlled so the drones also had a high frequency of the gene, is is very probable that this will be enough to make varroa go away.

Hi Mark.
Any chance you can put a link in for where this work has been published?

 

[Alastair]

How much does the wing test cost and who does it?

Also does he have any recommendations how to breed the trait in? IE, if you test the wing of a queen and find it has the gene, then the problem is that queen would have mated with an assortment of drones, and if you produce offspring from her they could be quite different from the mother. Are there any suggestions how to run a proper program?

I'm keen to give it a try, and I have II.

 

[frazzledfozzle]

Is this actually the original Dr Mark Goodwin ?
it doesn’t sound like him ?

 

[frazzledfozzle]

Is this actually the original Dr Mark Goodwin ?
it doesn’t sound like him ?

maybe I expect too much but for a doctor of marks standing in the bee world he sure has a terrible problem with spelling and getting his ideas across if the three posts he just put up are anything to go by.

it doesn’t true to me but I’m very happy to be corrected.

 

[Alastair]

He has expressed similar sentiments in the past, I am sure it is he.

Probably in a hurry when he wrote them.

 

[NickWallingford]

it doesn’t true to me but I’m very happy to be corrected.

I will with reasonable confidence confirm this is my friend Mark Goodwin.

 

[JohnF]

maybe I expect too much but for a doctor of marks standing in the bee world he sure has a terrible problem with spelling and getting his ideas across if the three posts he just put up are anything to go by.

it doesn’t true to me but I’m very happy to be corrected.

It doesn't true to me, Frazz? It's Mark . . as Alastair says, he has talked about James' work before.

James will be at both the honeybee research symposium and the ApiNZ conference. He is an extremely easy guy to talk with and very easy to bowl up to and have a convo.
And conferences are an excellent place to collaborate. At the conference a couple of years ago, James and I were next to each other at dinner and collaborated on developing a test looking at a DNA change associated with lower varroa levels . .. ..

If there was interest, we could offer the test. Perhaps even easier than a wing clipping from a queen, we can use material from the queen cell after she emerges

 

[frazzledfozzle]

He has expressed similar sentiments in the past, I am sure it is he.

Probably in a hurry when he wrote them.

must have been a big hurry

 

[Gerrit]

must have been a big hurry

Don't hold Mark to spelling mistakes, he is not the greatest in spelling. I remember meetings when it came to spelling he looked at me, while English is my second language. As we know, he has other areas he is good at.

 

[John B]

I noticed the spelling mistakes and just assumed that Mark has taken to using voice recognition software like I do. In my case it improves my spelling but I do get a lot of words that the computer doesn't hear correctly and I often fail to recognise this till it's too late.

 

[frazzledfozzle]

Don't hold Mark to spelling mistakes, he is not the greatest in spelling. I remember meetings when it came to spelling he looked at me, while English is my second language. As we know, he has other areas he is good at.

all good.
it was just odd to me that mark in the past hasn’t really been present in a lot of the forum debates especially around varroa and treatments and resistance etc.
it seemed odd to me that he only joined on Tuesday and not just the spelling but even trying to read his posts was interesting because they were a bit all over the place.

have a read of his post at the top of the page ….make varroa go away was mentioned twice, I dunno it doesn’t sound very scientific to me maybe he’s just dumbing it down for dumb beekeepers ?

my apologies if I’m wrong… but how easy is it to join a forum under a name that’s not yours …. ?

 

[Alastair]

maybe he’s just dumbing it down for dumb beekeepers ?

Yup, the guy has to hang with us plebs all the time, probably picking up the lingo 😉

 

[NickWallingford]

all good.
it was just odd to me that mark in the past hasn’t really been present in a lot of the forum debates especially around varroa and treatments and resistance etc.
it seemed odd to me that he only joined on Tuesday and not just the spelling but even trying to read his posts was interesting because they were a bit all over the place.

Again, @frazzledfozzle , I'll try to assure you that this is Dr. Mark Goodwin, my good friend. And I can assure you that his spelling issues are long standing, as @Gerrit has mentioned. Believe me, that is Mark that is writing - but maybe best to react to his ideas rather than his name...

 

[JohnF]

all good.
it was just odd to me that mark in the past hasn’t really been present in a lot of the forum debates especially around varroa and treatments and resistance etc.
it seemed odd to me that he only joined on Tuesday and not just the spelling but even trying to read his posts was interesting because they were a bit all over the place.

have a read of his post at the top of the page ….make varroa go away was mentioned twice, I dunno it doesn’t sound very scientific to me maybe he’s just dumbing it down for dumb beekeepers ?

my apologies if I’m wrong… but how easy is it to join a forum under a name that’s not yours …. ?

You missed the first point I made Frazz - namely, our typing mistakes.

Have you heard of James at Plant and Food? Did you know he was working on these varroa level traits? Like 95% of the crew here, I'm guessing not . . so why someone would pick this bit of news to post if they *weren't* Mark Goodwin is beyond me.
But if you look up Mark on the old forum . . .you'll see posts abut James' work I'm pretty sure..

But @Dr Mark Goodwin , as I recall the variant is associated with VSH . . .which means only a reduction as you say, rather than complete elimination. . ?

 

[Grant]

my apologies if I’m wrong… but how easy is it to join a forum under a name that’s not yours …. ?

you can always use the contact details in the profile to check, but you made a similar comment on the old forum too

 

[Dansar]

It doesn't true to me, Frazz? It's Mark . . as Alastair says, he has talked about James' work before.

James will be at both the honeybee research symposium and the ApiNZ conference. He is an extremely easy guy to talk with and very easy to bowl up to and have a convo.
And conferences are an excellent place to collaborate. At the conference a couple of years ago, James and I were next to each other at dinner and collaborated on developing a test looking at a DNA change associated with lower varroa levels . .. ..

If there was interest, we could offer the test. Perhaps even easier than a wing clipping from a queen, we can use material from the queen cell after she emerges

Mark mentioned this to me about 4 years ago at a small conference we arranged for our commercial and school students. It will be interesting to hear from James about the research and I would also be interested in sending some queen samples for genetic trait recognition.
Some how our last communication (I think it was about AFB) broke down due to my email account being full.