Hello Ted & All,
Ted asks some excellent questions.
>
> By this statement I understood you to mean it is a good thing to have
> Australian producers importing genetic material from Europe to improve
> their stock.

When I did the first Australian import article I said little about the 
Australian inspection service. In the second article in  2005 i went into 
great detail about the safe gaurds in place. I have pushed for a similar 
system put in place in the U.S. but seemed to fall on deaf ears. The 
Austrailan system is top of the line. Simply importing semen takes many 
risks however the U.S. has seen to take those risks before.

 But now you say that importing semen into the U.S. from
> Europe may be problematic.

Colin from Aphis heard about a illegal semen import and was not happy. I can 
post the CD number from the National convention if you would like to hear 
the conversation for yourself. I really have no serious problem with said 
queen breeder and her semen import except she seems to think bringing in 
semen only is without risk. The Australian import method is many times 
safer.


How is it safe to have the genetic material
> arrive via Australia rather than the direct route?

Well for one the method is legal (unlike what our queen breeder did).  I 
will explain the Australian queen import method in a minute if you do not 
have easy acess to my articles.

 And do you know what
> Australian protocols are in place with regard to the importation of queens
> from Europe?

The first step is to get the Australian inspection service to agree to the 
import. Usually they want a few sample specimens to dissect. Then you anti 
up the cost which runs 4-5 thousand for *each* queen. The queen is sent to 
the Australian inspection service and placed in a quarantine area. 
Impossible to escape. The queen is introduced into a nuc. When the queen is 
laying the beekeeper is allowed to go into the cage and graft. The 
inspection service also checks the eggs and larva. Only larva (if ok) are 
allowed to leave with the beekeeper. After the grafting is done the queen is 
killed and dissected and checked. All the bees are killed and the area 
disinfected and I believe the equipment burned. A very risky part and one 
Australian queen breeders are not crazy about is that if at any time the 
bees kill the new queen the import is over and the money is forfeited. has 
happened.
U.S.
unchecked semen is brought in or Russian queens are held on a island for a 
period of time and then moved live onto the mainland.

You ask excellent questions Ted! The same questions I asked when researching 
for my articles.

Off to bed now as I have been up and working since 4 AM.  I am going into 
another state early tomorrow pulling a trailer. The first truck I hooked up 
had no trailer lights. Grabbed another truck and all trailer lights flashed 
when signals on. The third truck the lights worked. Glad I had trucks 
sitting around as too tired to deal with light problems tonight.

Back tomorrow night if you have other questions Ted.

bob 

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