> am not sure I understand why you see this action as political? a number of researchers are all in agreement on this issue

Reply:

quote from BeeWeaver website:

> APHIS' decision to suspend Australian imports was premised upon erroneous information about SPV being in Australia. In fact, the scientific literature clearly shows that no detection of SPV has ever been made in Australia. The only SPV detection from the entire Pacific region was on the islands of Samoa and Fiji. Also, investigators at a scientific conference in Europe recently revealed that SPV has not been associated with any unexplained or unusual colony mortality in Europe, so the risk associated with that virus seems to be minimal in any event.
> 
> APHIS' other rationale for suspending Australian bee imports - the presence of Apis cerana swarms in a quarantined area of Northern Queensland seems to have been born by a sudden and unexplained change of perception - but no new facts suggesting any change in the actual risk posed by the presence of Apis cerana in Australia.
> 
> Apis cerana has been quarantined in an eradication zone more than a thousand kilometers away from the package and queen production regions ever since the first swarm was found. At this juncture the Apis cerana swarms have been in Queensland for years while thousands of Australian bees and queens have been brought to the US without incident from areas far to the south. And there have been no adverse bee health events reported either in Australia or among Australian bees imported into the US since the Apis cerana swarms were first identified in a ship's mast near Cairns.
> 
> Even if APHIS had evidence to suggest that SPV and Apis cerana present new risks to US bees and beekeepers, it would be quite feasible to test colonies for SPV prior to export, and restrict package bee imports to colonies that were kept far from the Apis cerana incursion zone - as has been the case in practice anyway. Both would provide additional assurances against the introduction of any novel pathogens, while still allowing US beekeepers to obtain bees from Australia.
> 
> We encourage Beekeepers who need queens, and who are unable to get queens from US suppliers, to contact USDA with their concerns.

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