CATCH THE BUZZ
Australia has Apis cerana, protocol may be changed so bees can still come to US
Alan Harman
Australia is in breach of protocols allowing it to ship live bees to the United States.
The problem is an incursion of Asian honey bees (Apis cerana) in far north Queensland.
Biosecurity Queensland has destroyed 17 nests and swarms since the incursion was initially detected in May last year.
Part seven of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations requires live bee shipments from Australia to be certified as having hive freedom and country freedom from Asian bees.
Australia can certify hive freedom, but not country freedom.
But the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says it is not planning to ban Australian bees.
“We are working with them to develop a new protocol,” APHIS spokeswoman Melissa O’Dell tells Bee Culture.
Australia has build up a lucrative business worth more than A$5 million exporting bee packages to the U.S. since the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted a ban on importing Australian and New Zealand bees in 2004.
A few thousand packages were imported to California in 2005 and since then the numbers have soared to more than 40,000 packages. The packages cost around $150 each.
“The Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service (AQIS) is currently negotiating with U.S. authorities in regard to live bee imports from Australia, in light of the Apis cerana incursion at Cairns,” Dr. Denis Anderson Principal Research Scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s entomology division says in an e-mail.
“I haven't heard anything yet on how those negotiations are going,” the world authority on bees and Varroa mites says.
Biosecurity Queensland is making a major push to find and destroy as many Asian honeybee nests and swarms as it can before the wet season sets in.
Primary Industries and Fisheries Minister Tim Mulherin says Biosecurity Queensland teams had found more foraging Asian honey bees and were hunting for their nests.
He says the annual rains would make surveillance for the Asian honey bees (Apis cerana) – which are host to Varroa mites - more difficult.
“They will take this opportunity to breed up over the summer and create an even bigger headache than they have this year,” he says in a recent statement.
“While the Apis cerana we are dealing with at the moment are free of the destructive pest Varroa mite, it only takes a new incursion of a mite-carrying species to quickly spread it through our bee colonies. New incursions would be hard to detect if there are Apis cerana living in the area already.”
The outbreak is centered around Cairns, 1,050 miles (1,681 km) north of Brisbane the state capital.
The isolated location may be the saving grace for both countries.
Rob Williams, agriculture counselor at the Australian Embassy in Washington, tells Bee Culture the U.S. has been informed of the incursion and Australia is proposing a change to the protocols that would effectively put Cairns in a quarantine zone.
“We can’t certify the freedom from Asian bees and we are asking for amendments,” he says. “We want to make sure the U.S. is comfortable. There has to be U.S. agreement. We have hive freedom from Asian bees, but not country freedom.”
Williams says there are no indications the Americans will look unfavorably on the request.
“It is such an isolated area,” he says. “Our feeling is the U.S. will look favorably on this but we haven’t received official confirmation yet.”
A U.S. rejection of Asian live bees would be a disaster on both sides of the Pacific.
It would rip through the booming Australian export industry and threaten American crop pollination, including the multi-billion dollar almond, apple and orange sectors.
Blueberries and cherries are 90% dependent on honeybee pollination, while almonds depend entirely on the honeybee for pollination.
Australian bees now are responsible for pollinating a large chunk of crops worth more than US$14.6 billion. Their role has become even more important after losses suffered s from Colony Collapse Disorder and other hive problems.
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The queens and package bees entering the U.S. must be accompanied by a health certificate certified by an authorized (AQIS) officer. Among other things, the certificate must assert Australia (excluding the Torres Strait Protected Zone) is free from African honeybees (Apis mellifera scultellata); Asian honeybees (Apis cerana); Cape honeybees (Apis mellifera capensis); Asian mite (Tropilaelaps clareae); Varroa mite (V. destructor); tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi); Euvarroa sinhai; and the Thai sacbrood virus.
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Hives from which the bees were derived have to be individually inspected by an Australian federal or state agricultural official within 10 days prior to export.
The importer must notify APHIS at least 10 business days prior to arrival in the United States regarding any shipment of bees imported into the United States.
The protocols say if , upon inspection, any shipment fails to meet the listed requirements, the shipment will be refused entry into the U.S. and will be immediately exported or destroyed at the importer/exporter's expense.
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