Sir, The National Audit Office (NAO) also points to the need for research into what is killing the bees and observes that Defra has had difficulties controlling the spread of the deadly varroa mite (leading article and report, Mar 4). Our universities have excellent laboratories and researchers to stop this epidemic, but starved of research funds for many years we are limited in what we can do.

We are already undertaking research into a strain of “hygienic bees” that removes dead and infected larvae from hives, and this is mentioned in the NAO report, but we need further investment. For example, £1 million could fund essential research to help to put the buzz back into honeybees — that’s just 0.1 per cent of the value of bees to the economy.

Professor Francis Ratnieks

Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects, University of Sussex

Sir, In the early 1990s I was seconded to Hadlow College, Kent, to assist in establishing and developing research there. The college already ran a programme to breed stocks of bees derived from the indigenous Apis mellifera mellifera that were docile, hence more easily managed (no requirement for protective clothing; less disruption from swarming), and more productive, which would place British honey production more competitively in the market.

One of the team was Dr Jacob Kahn, a retired academic physiologist interested in bee genetics. In 1993 we applied to Maff (the precursor of Defra) for a grant to continue the work and, in response to the clear probability that the varroa mite would soon become established in Britain, Dr Kahn proposed to attempt to breed for resistance against varroa by, for example, screening for bees that had sufficiently strong mandibles to crush the mites, or, since the mite has a lengthy development period, bees whose workers completed their development in a shorter period, so evading parasitisation.

Unfortunately the application foundered at the last hurdle when Maff abruptly decided not to fund any bee research at that time.

We commented then that the work done by bees in pollination was grossly underestimated. Since widespread use of pesticides began, the number of bumble bee species in Britain had by then dropped from sixteen to six, which emphasised the significance of honeybees in this role. If varroa was not controlled, there was a risk that the pollination of our annual crops and fruit would be seriously jeopardised in the near future.

Over the past 15 years, all this has come true. That lead time has now been lost; British beekeeping has been left largely in the hands of amateurs who do not necessarily have the expertise to recognise when they have an infestation developing in their hives. The proposal that Defra should now identify hive-owners and teach them how to manage their stocks effectively is purely reactive and years too late.

A strategic plan is needed, inter alia, to investigate the genetics of A. m. mellifera so as to improve bee stocks. To this end Defra could usefully seek collaboration with the Bee Breeding Institute at Kirchhain, Germany, which has conducted successful breeding programmes since the late 1940s.

Dr A. R. W. Smith

Retired Reader in Microbial Biochemistry,

University of Greenwich

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