Observation of Genetic Gain with Instrumental Insemination of Honeybee Queens

SIMPLE SUMMARY: To control the reproduction of honeybees is complex due to its reproductive particularities; indeed, the mating of the queen takes place while it is in flight with several males. This particularity of the species is an additional challenge in beekeeping when it comes to succeeding in its breeding and obtaining consequent genetic gains in selection. For many years, several methods of mating control have been developed with varying efficiencies. In this study we compared the genetic gains of several performance traits of colonies (i.e., honey production) as a function of selection pressure on reproduction: either directed fertilization or instrumental insemination. The results of this study show that the genetic gains obtained in colonies with artificially inseminated queens are similar to or lower than the genetic gains obtained in colonies with naturally fertilized queens, depending on the performance traits. Overall, these results do not demonstrate that the use of instrumental insemination is effective in increasing genetic gains; however, they show that instrumental insemination can be a useful and effective tool to achieve total reproductive control within a genetic selection program. ABSTRACT: Controlling mating in the honeybee (Apis mellifera) is part of one of the greatest challenges for the beekeeping industry’s genetic selection programs due to specific characteristics of their reproduction. Several techniques for supervising honeybee mating with relative effective control have been developed over the years to allow honeybee selection. As part of this project, we compared the genetic gains for several colony performance traits, obtained using the BLUP-animal method, according to the selection pressure applied in controlled reproduction (directed fertilization versus instrumental insemination). Our results show similar genetic gains for hygienic behavior and honey production between colonies whether queens were fertilized naturally or via instrumental insemination, as well as similar or lower genetic gains for colonies with queens inseminated for spring development. In addition, we noticed greater fragility in queens following insemination. These findings show that instrumental insemination is an effective tool for reproductive control in genetic selection and for estimating breeding values more precisely. However, this technique does not result in queens of superior genetic quality for commercial purposes.