>Did anyone know they were Ceranae before they were killed?

Dick, I can confirm Trevor's answer--the testing of the bees for mites, and
the eradication effort is being well handled.


>This so called crisis is trumped up in my view and some beekeepers and the
Almond Board are taking advantage of the never ending stream of disappearing
bee news stories and ignorance of government officials.

Brian, this is a bit of a stretch.  The price of an Aussie package is
comparable to the price for a full colony of US bees hauled from out of
state (even if as far as Florida).  So it would be a difficult case to make
that the Aussie imports give the growers lower prices.  Instead, they are
more of a quick fix for beekeepers whose colonies die unexpectly, similar to
how Canadian beekeepers import packages, due to time constraints.

The government officials involved are far from ignorant, but are constrained
by WTO rules that are created by politicians, with an emphasis on
*profitable* trade.  Unfortunately, short term profit interests frequently
are given more weight than long -term biological issues.

Randy Oliver

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