Thing is GG, the stuff about Amm 'dying out' was propagated by Brother Adam as it paved the way for his his solution - the Buckfast bee, which has been a popular choice commercially all over the world.
Sure, DNA work is out of the budget of most beekeepers but this project at LIT has let a lot of the main Amm breeders in Ireland submit samples for testing free of charge.
Aoife and Micheál Mac Giolla Coda sent in dozens of samples for testing.
This is really useful as it means that any stock showing significant hybridisation can be discounted as a breeder stock.
Some of the samples taken were split and one half was sent to a DNA lab in Switzerland for testing so that results can be compared to give a certain amount of validation to the methodology at LIT.
I think I am the only beekeeper who sent in samples from NI. The rest of the samples are from all over RoI.