Peter,

The sentinel hive programme is not new, having been in place for quite a few 
years. What is new, is the Federal Government's appreciation of its value. 
They have now agreed to fund it, in order to guarantee its continuation. It 
was previously part funded by state departments and partly by beekeepers, 
and relied very heavily on volunteers to provide bees and maintain them. As 
a consequence there were some problems with maintenance of uniform 
standards. Hopefully the new funding guarantee will enable further expansion 
of the scheme to more points of entry and more remote regions in Northern 
Australia.

Although this is a "canary in the coalmine" approach it is seen as having 
value, and is only one of several mechanisms that have been incorporated in 
our biosecurity efforts. Biosecurity is one of the bigger words in the 
Australian language, and is on the tip of most beekeepers' tongues here!

PeterD 

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