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

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The loss of honey bees poses a significant problem for the beekeeping industry. Opportunities to recover the stock of honey bees are crucial in areas with drastic losses. In this article, we describe known native and bred Apis mellifera L. stocks of honey bees in the Russian Federation and their characteristics, identified using morphometric and genetic methods. We review the experience of Russian breeders and other breeders in breeding initial A. mellifera Far East honey bees with inherited traits for Varroa resistance. We also describe the bred types of honey bee A. m. mellifera L., A. m. caucasia Gorb., A. m. carpatica Avet. that offer potential in the aim to recover honey bee populations after losses. Our findings indicate that it is necessary to avoid honey bee losses by breeding resistant honey bees. Several bred types of honey bees from the dataset showed high performance in terms of overwintering, resistance to Varroa destructor, Acarapis woodi, and Nosema infections, and little or no swarm conditions. This review shows the potential to increase selection efforts in the breeding of resistant Apis mellifera L. honey bee populations in the Russian Federation and throughout the world. 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.