Nick S Behrens wrote:
> people import random bees with random or unknown diseases and problems

I think that a lot of thought went into the decision to ease the import
restriction against honey bees. Bees were imported only from Australia which
has perhaps the most well-developed and healthiest bee industry in the
world. Many other countries would also like to sell bees here; Chile and
Argentina come to mind. 

We don't even know at this point where the Israeli virus came from, how long
it has been here or what it even does. At this point there is no real reason
to conclude that bees from Australia are anything but healthier than the
bees in the USA. Officials met more than a month ago to discuss a study
linking Australian bees to a die-off of bees in North America.

Jeff Pettis: "The misconception is that we're in active discussion about
closing the border to Australian packaged bees. We had begun to discuss what
the paper said, that's it. We didn't go as far as to say that means we're
moving towards a ban of Australian bees." 

I am personally surprised at the number of knee-jerk responses and
counter-responses. Certainly, if one wishes to have an informed point of
view on the current situation, one must first become informed and secondly
develop an opinion. Not just spew out whatever pops into one's head. 

Pete

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