NZ has shipped package bees and queens to Canada for about 20
years now.  The exports are generally trans-shipped (taken from
one plane to another) in Hawaii.  The State of Hawaii has now
closed this off entirely, ostensibly due to the risk of bee
diseases from NZ.  Dr Liu's work, referred to in the letter from
the State of Hawaii's Dept of Ag, has been challenged in American
bee magazines.  I'd be curious to see what sort of response
(scientific, please, not emotive) there is on this issue.  Its
that fine line where bee science is being used to create trade
barriers, and its very important that the science be good!
 
 
FROM BUZZWORDS, THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ZEALAND
BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION, NUMBER 51, APRIL 1993.
 
BEE EXPORTS JEOPARDISED
 
This year's shipments of New Zealand queens and package bees to
Canada could be at risk, thanks to actions recently taken by
state and federal governments in the United States.  The
lucrative Canadian market, worth over $1.5 million to New Zealand
and Australian producers, is currently in limbo following a
decision by the US Department of Agriculture to agree to a
Hawaiian state government request to end transshipments of live
bees through its borders.  The move follows hard on the heals of
a Canadian federal government decision to allow the import of
queen bees produced in Hawaii for the 1993 production year.
 
The Hawaiians had tried unsuccessfully for several years to
access the Canadian market which was closed to live bee shipments
from the continental United States in 1987 in an effort to keep
out the Varroa mite.  The move resulted in losses to US queen
producers estimated at NZ$6.8 million per year (see Buzzwords
30).
 
The decision by Canadian authorities to allow Hawaii queens into
their country is seen as a victory for elements in the Canadian
industry who believe that the US border should no longer be
closed.  Varroa outbreaks have now been identified in several
Canadian provinces and last year the Canadian federal government
announced that it would no longer pay all the costs for varroa
mite control programmes.
 
Unfortunately for the Canadians, however, if the Hawaiian ban
remains in place, Canadians will be unable to obtain package bees
from any outside source.  The Canadian approval is only for
queens from Hawaii, and even if the Hawaiians obtained export
clearance for packages it is unlikely that they could supply more
than a small portion of Canada's package needs.  With those sorts
of pressures on the Canadian industry, it's conceivable that the
Canadians could call for a return to package imports from
California, just so they can continue to restock their hives.
 
The Canadian authorities are requiring several strict export
certification procedures for Hawaiian queens.  These include the
testing of 15% of the producer's colonies for varroa and one hive
per apiary for tracheal mite.  However, the procedures do not
require area freedoms for American foulbrood, as required for New
Zealand queens.  Hawaii currently does not have an American
foulbrood control programme and has no government register of
beekeepers and apiaries.
 
The Hawaiians, for their part, have used some very tenuous
arguments in an effort to get the USDA to stop transshipments of
our bees through their ports.  Mr. Yukio Kitagawa, chairperson of
the Hawaiian State Government Board of Agriculture, claims that
bee shipments from Australia and New Zealand pose the threat of
introducing foreign diseases and pests into Hawaii.  As evidence
for this, he quotes the articles written by Dr. Stephen Liu, from
Agriculture Canada, which appeared in a number of bee
publications in North America in the past several years.
According to Mr. Kitagawa, Dr. Liu 'detected two serious honey
bee diseases, not present in Hawaii, in samples of package bees
shipped into Canada from New Zealand and Australia'.  The
diseases mentioned are Kashmir bee virus and melanosis.
 
As Denis Anderson pointed out in his rebuttal in The American Bee
Journal in 1991 (see Buzzwords 39), Dr. Liu's articles 'omitted
important published information about Kashmir bee virus and made
claims that were not supported by scientific evidence.'  There is
also much disagreement amongst scientists as to whether melanosis
is even a disease.  But the real point is that the Hawaiians
don't even know whether they have these two problems (we're sure
they do) because no one has really ever looked.
 
Dr. Liu made it clear last year that his comments about Kashmir
and melanosis were directed at 'academically informing'
beekeepers and were not really scientific articles (see Buzzwords
45).  Still, that hasn't stopped the Hawaiians from grasping this
very inconsequential straw and holding the whole of Australasia's
Canadian bee exports to ransom.  We strongly believe it is about
time someone in the North American bee science establishment took
Dr. Liu to task for his lack of scientific ethics.  Dr. Liu needs
to apologise to US and Canadian officials for the errors in his
articles on Kashmir and melanosis and he needs to do it now.
 
* * *  STOP PRESS  * * *
 
Agriculture Canada has just approved several new
transit/transhipment ports for this year's package bee exports to
Canada.  These include Singapore, Seoul, London, and Hong Kong.
There is still a problem, however, of available space on
aircraft.  We understand that at this point only one air carrier
has agreed to consider shipping packages through Hong Kong.
 
We have also just been informed that the US authorities will
allow transshipments of live bees through LA for valid sales
contracts made prior to March 19.  Contact your local AAO for
details.
 
-------------------------------------
          Nick Wallingford
  National Beekeepers Assn of NZ
     Internet [log in to unmask]
-------------------------------------