Allow me to add to Jim's excellent comments (other than that I personally
enjoyed the first Crocodile Dundee movie).
Read below what our government says about the sampling of consignments:
"It should be noted that inspection based on sampling always involves a
degree of error. The acceptance of some degree of risk that the pests are
present is inherent in the use of sampling procedures for inspection.
Inspection using statistically based sampling methods can provide confidence
that the incidence of a pest is below a certain level, but it can never
prove that a pest is truly absent from a consignment. "
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/plant_exports/downloads/draft_ispm_sampling_consignments.pdf
Sampling for pests assumes that if a pest does indeed enter, that we have
the option of eradicating it where it shows up. Unfortunately, in the case
of bee mites and viruses, we do not realistically have that option. A
single individual is all that is necessary to infect the entire continent in
perpetuity.
Randy Oliver
*******************************************************
* Search the BEE-L archives at: *
* http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l *
*******************************************************