Mernat Mafirakurewa
Johannesburg - A solution to combating the feared American Foul Brood that kills young bees in their hives lies in the use of African honey bees to breed bees with resistance.
A research conducted by Professor Robin Crew from the University of Pretoria the Africa bee has bee found to contain characteristics that could be used to breed resistant bees.
Crew said the African honey bee is indigenous and genetically much more diverse than the European honey bee with its limited genetic variants.
"Characteristics which offer resistance to American Foul Brood disease and other diseases affecting bees, could be identified in this diverse gene pool and used to breed resistant bees,” he said.
The disease has spread throughout the Western Cape since February when it was first confirmed in South Africa.
Professor Crew will in January give three lectures at the University of Cape Town's annual summer school as means to equip Bee farmers in the Western with proper information on the disease.
The lectures will explain how domesticated European bees spread to America and Australasia and established themselves as an exotic species in a new habitat to the great advantage of human beings.
Chairperson of the South African Bee Industry Organisation, John Moodie, said research done an extensive research between the different types of bees.
Said Moodie, “Robin did extensive research based on the DNA of the African honey bee and this is now widely regarded as the original ancestor of all honey bees."
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