Hi Everyone,
Again interesting discussion.  Just want to set one thing straight and
then some comments.  I am not employed by USDA.  I am employed by the MN
Dept of Agriculture.  Except for enforcement of regulations on
importation on honeybees into the US USDA does not regulate honeybees
but regulation is done by most states and takes place at state lines.
These regulations do differ from state to state just as the beekeeping
industry varies from state to state.  Most states require that honeybees
be inspected and certified in the state or origin before they are
allowed to be legally imported into that state.  This is an attempt to
reduce the chance of moving a disease or pest problem into the receiving
state.  Beekeepers in most states have demanded this system of oversight
to allow movement of honeybees into their state.  This is not very
different at all from other regulations on the movement of livestock
from state to state.  Ask some cattlemen in your area how they feel
about someone bringing in cattle from outside the state without the
proper health records etc.

Now my comments.

Barry wrote in part:

"Tell me what is going to happen should the Lusby's ship bees to another
state and that states inspector can't tell whether or not they are
ahb's? By
what guide will he make his determination whether they are or not? If he
simply says they are because they came from Arizona, this has proved
nothing. Too many holes in the system to be much good in my opinion."

State inspectors don't need to "prove" that the bees are AHB or anything
else in most cases all they need to "prove" is that the bees were
transported into the state without proper certification and the proper
import permits ( the import permits are issued by the state inspector so
it is not difficult to find out if they are lacking ).  The issue here
is illegal movement not what is actually in the boxes.  Of course
finding something in the boxes that is not know to exist in the state
helps show that they were brought in without the proper permits.  You
ask who has even been hurt by such illegal movement of honeybees.  How
many beekeepers have been put out of business by varroa mites?  They
were brought here to the US by illegal movement of honeybees.  It took
about 10 years from varroa to spread across Austria from my reading of
the issue in Europe but we spread the mites across the US in 2 to 4
years mostly by movement of honeybees both legal and illegal.  The first
find of varroa in MN in 1988 was in honeybee colonies moved illegally
into the state from Florida.  Other states could give additional
examples.  Illegal movement of honeybees has cost us as an industry
dearly.  This is not to say we should stop all movement of honeybees but
that the regulations in place are there for a reason and it is our best
interest to follow them for our own protection.  My view is that we
should allow limited and carefully designed importation of selected
honeybee stocks into the US with regulatory safeguards to reduce the
chance of bringing in additional problems.  Like the USDA importation of
the Russian honeybees stocks that are resistant to varroa.

Yes I buy packages and queens from other states but really like to see
those inspection tags on the cages since I know that the producer has
made an effort to meet the regulations and has nothing to hide.  If
someone doesn't want to meet the regulations what are they trying to
hide?

FWIW

blane



******************************************
Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
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