Beekeeping Genetic Resources and Retrieval of Honey Bee Apis mellifera L. Stock in the Russian Federation: A Review

Abstract

The loss of honey bees has drawn a large amount of attention in various countries. Therefore, the development of efficient methods for recovering honey bee populations has been a priority for beekeepers. Here we present an extended literature review and report on personal communications relating to the characterization of the local and bred stock of honey bees in the Russian Federation. New types have been bred from local colonies (A. mellifera L., A. m. carpatica Avet., A. m. caucasia Gorb.). The main selection traits consist of a strong ability for overwintering, disease resistance and different aptitudes for nectar collection in low and high blooming seasons. These honey bees were certified by several methods: behavioral, morphometric and genetic analysis. We illustrate the practical experience of scientists, beekeepers and breeders in breeding A. mellifera Far East honey bees with Varroa and tracheal mite resistance, which were the initial reasons for breeding the A. mellifera Far Eastern breed by Russian breeders, Russian honey bee in America, the hybrid honey bee in Canada by American breeders, and in China by Chinese beekeepers. The recent achievements of Russian beekeepers may lead to the recovery of beekeeping areas suffering from crossbreeding and losses of honey bee colonies.

Сurrent state of Vairimorpha spp. infection cases and haplotype distribution across Eurasian countries

“…There is an A. mellifera population present in the temperate zone of North-East Eurasia (Frunze et al 2021), but there is no data about the subarctic region there, although A. mellifera population inhabits the subartic region of North-Central part (Ostroverkhova et al 2020). Based on the fact that most infection cases in the temperate and subartic zone were mixed Vairimorpha species of North-Central Asia, it can be assumed that both species can also live in the North-East part of Eurasia.…”

Creation of a Biobank of the Sperm of the Honey Bee Drones of Different Subspecies of Apis mellifera L.

“…At the same time, phylogenetic analysis showed that the Prioksky bees formed one cluster with a sample of A. m. caucasica from the Krasnopolyansk experimental station. The Prioksky breeding stock was bred at the Federal Beekeeping Research Centre on the basis of crossing A. m. mellifera and A. m. caucasica [41,47]. The results of a genetic analysis showed that the Prioksky sample was more consistent with the subspecies A. m. caucasica and the level of the gene pool of A. m. mellifera in it was only 1.4%.…”

“…The cubital index for samples of A. m. mellifera was also below the standard value [39,40]. The cubital index of the Burzyan sample (AmmB), despite the fact that it was lower than standard values, corresponded to the CI for the Burzyan population of A. m. mellifera [41]. There are no standard values for other characters.…”

Evaluation of body weight and morphometric characteristics of the young queen of Apis cerana javana at different queen cup cell sizes

“…The mean value of this study is smaller than the findings of Li et al (2020) where the mean Cubital Index value of Apis cerana nuluensis is 3.84 in Sulawesi, indicating that genotype and environment differences influence the size of the wing's Cubital Index. Frunze et al (2021) explained that the cubital index characteristic is used to distinguish subspecies of honey bees. Based on the Ustadi et al (2022b), research shows their findings on the differences in Cubital Index values between Apis cerana and Apis florea queen bees.…”