in some British newspapers, in which Dorian Pritchard, the Conservation officer for the BIBBA and President of SICAMM (International Association for the Protection of the European Dark Bee), was interviewed and quoted, saying that the Old British Black Bee (an extinct strain of A. m. mellifera) was not extinct and had been discovered in the rafters of a church in Northumberland. There were numerous inaccuracies in the story, including: (1) The Old "British Black" bee was "wiped out by a strain of Spanish flu in 1919": The Spanish flu only affected humans, it was the Isle of Wight Disease between 1904 through to 1945 that was believed to have wiped out the original Old British (and Irish) Black Bees of the British Isles. (2) "The Spanish flu which wiped out ... every single bee in the UK": No beekeepers at the time made this claim, what was claimed was that the indigenous Apis mellifera mellifera of the British Isles was wiped out, hybrids with other non-Apis mellifera mellifera bees often survived, notably A. m. ligustica and later the Buckfast bee bred by Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey, also continental A. m. mellifera, imported in subsequent years to repopulate the country, showed stronger resistance to the Isle of Wight Disease. (3) "The British Black bee is different from other bees ... ideally suited to the British climate ... more so than the European Black bee": This suggests that the "British Black Bee" found in the church is a different subspecies than the "European Black Bee" (A. m. mellifera), while in fact they are the same subspecies, as acknowledged by Philip Denwood writing in SICAMM's magazine mellifera.ch in 2014 (as a member of BBKA and the BIBBA) "... in the last decade DNA studies ... have conclusively shown that modern specimens of Dark Bees from the UK and Ireland fit into the genetic specification of Apis mellifera mellifera (the European dark / black bee)". Breeding for Varroa resistance Varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) In 2010, it was announced at the VIth COLOSS Conference that a project using the British native honey bee Apis mellifera mellifera was to be set up to breed for Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH). In April 2016, the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University of Sussex (LASI) began blogging about the project. They stated, "we have established LASI Queen Bees to supply our hygienic bees to UK