Originally Posted by
fatshark
I'm not entirely sure that's the case DR. If the hygienic trait only provided a benefit under selection i.e. the presence of high levels of Varroa, but was otherwise even mildly detrimental you might expect it to be lost if the selection pressure was removed by thymol/OA treatment. I suspect open mating would have a much bigger effect though ...
An interesting comparison is with Apistan resistance of mites. Evidence suggests that this is detrimental in the absence of selection i.e. if you stop using Apistan the deleterious mutation is mildly detrimental and is, over time (~3-4 years perhaps), lost from the mite population. In the absence of resistance Apistan is pretty effective ... perhaps its use should be banned for 3 years out of every 4?
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