Heritability of Apis mellifera recapping behavior and suppressed mite reproduction as resistance traits towards Varroa destructor

The selection of honeybee strains resistant to the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor is generally considered as one most sustainable ways coping with this major bee parasite. Thus, breeding efforts increasingly focus on resistance parameters in addition common beekeeping traits like honey yield and gentleness. In every effort, success strongly depends quantifiability heritability accounted. To find suitable among manifold variants assess resistance, it necessary evaluate how easily a trait can be measured (i.e., testing effort) relation underlying expected transfer following generation). Various possible are described beneficial for colony survival presence therefore stocks around globe. Two them particular, suppressed reproduction (SMR, sensu lato any reproductive failure mother mites) recapping already sealed brood cells have recently gained increasing attention breeders because they closely resemble mechanisms some -surviving populations. However, was still unknown whether genetic background sufficient targeted selection. We investigated heritabilities correlations SMR REC, distinguishing between infested (RECinf) all (RECall), an extensive dataset Buckfast Carniolan stock Germany. With accessible h² 0.18 0.44 0.40 RECinf, both turned out very promising further Carnica population, respectively.