Research set to start on Seychelles honey bees |22 January 2013

Two researchers from the CIRAD-3P research centre in Reunion arrived in the country last week to carry out the study.

The idea is to determine the ancestral lineage of the honey bee here and the global genetic diversity.

At the moment there is a programme on the islands of the South West part of the Indian Ocean to check the genetic diversity and ecology of the honey bee Apis mellifera sp.

Under the programme, the experts have already obtained honey bee samples from different islands of the region (Reunion, Madagascar, Mayotte, Grande Comoros and Mauritius and Rodrigue). They are now extending their research to Seychelles.

During the course of their more than a week-long mission more information about the programme is expected to be revealed and the result of the research is to be released once the study is completed.