Walter Patton wrote:
>
> Dear BEE-L readers
>         The USDA is poised to allow Australian and New Zealand honey bees into the
> United States. It has not been in the federal registry and they would like
> to allow this to start in Spring of 1998. The USDA already has circumvented
> the intent of the Honey Bee act of 1922 with a sloppy (possibly an illegal)
> rule making process a couple of years ago that effectively did away with
> the Honey Bee Act which was established in 1922 by Congress with the intent
> " to prevent the introduction and spread of pests and disease of Honey
> Bees" by prohibiting the import of Honey Bees from any where to the U S .
>         History lesson over the USDA is ready, in 1998, to allow the Australian
> and NZ honey bees into the US. The problem is that the Australians and the
> New Zealand bee keeping industry needs easy access to the Honolulu
> International Airport as a break and distribution hub to facilitate the
> business of exporting their bees to the US, Canada, Korea, and of coarse
> China. In the last rule making the USDA  tried to ignore that this
> transiting of NZ honey bees through Honolulu airport constituted an entry
> into the state of Hawaii which has been prohibited since 1985 by Hawaii
> State Statue in an attempt to protect the Hawaiian Honey Bees from the
> introduction of Honey bee mites and other diseases. Hawaii queen bees are
> certified to be mite free.
>         Now after more consideration the USDA has recognized that this transiting
> is an entry and that the concerns of the State of Hawaii and the Hawaii bee
> keepers should be given a little additional thought. In addition to the
> request of New Zealand and Australia other Asian countries according to Dr.
> Robert Flanders with APHIS/USDA have been making inquiries about transiting
> through Hawaii to export markets. A quick fix was proposed  that if the
> State of Hawaii would not object to the transiting of NZ and Aus. Honey
> bees that Hawaii would be excluded from the import of the NZ and Aus. Bees
> leaving this issue of other countries to be decided at a later date.
>         To date the Hawaii Dept. Of Ag has said no to the quick fix and is
> developing a protocol proposal for the testing of the Hawaii honey bee
> populations. The question is what is needed for a true risk assessment to
> be meaningful? How many of the 12 or 14 diseases reported to be present on
> the NZ bees should we look for on our bees? Proving a negative being much
> more difficult then proving a positive what percentage do we have to check.
> 100% or
>  5 % of total colonies? What is the health status of other nations wishing
> to ship through Hawaii and do we screen for those also?
> I really and truly do not have a clue as to the answer to these questions.
> The Hawaii Dept. Of Ag.is seeking input from the industry and I would
> appreciate any suggestions from the group.
> Thanking everyone for their considerations in advance and wishing everyone
> the Happiest of Holidays-
>                         Aloha   Walter Patton   Hawaii
 
 
 
 
Greatings Walt, for what its worth has'nt Canada been bringing in bees
from NZ. and Aus. for some time now? Since bees can move freely from
Canada to the States we've probably already got what they got,(half moon
disease) or whatever. Seems like the queen and package producers
wouldn't want this competition and would ban together to put up a stink.
 Must be they can fly direct to Canada or do they stop already stop in
Hawaii?