Dee Lusby said:

> This reminds me though, aren't we currently in US Federal
> Register comment period for allowing imports of queens and
> bees from Australia and New Zealand?

Yes, but let's not blame Australia or New Zealand for asking
the US to open its "markets" to them.  Blame the US for having
less concern and less stringent requirements for imported animals
than they have for immigrant humans.

> How now would this have bearing upon a new strain of EFB
> and or AFB coming into the USA that could cause problems to
> our beekeeping community here or even for that matter,
> Canada, adding to our woes of PMS already ongoing?

If there is anything that is "just as bad, if not worse" than
the ability of bacteriological strains to mutate, it would be
viral strains.  The same general rules of the game apply to
both, with the same frustrating results for anyone trying to
control the spread of disease.

I think that it is certain that the strains of bacteria and
viruses in NZ and Australia are different from ours.  Are they
somehow "worse"?  I don't think anyone knows, but it appears
that the burden of proof has somehow shifted from the exporting
country to the citizens of the importing country, even though
every bee pest and disease we have came from "somewhere else",
and most of them were "no big problem" where they came from.

I have nothing against New Zealand, Australia, or their queens,
but if you want my opinion, I think that anyone who can read can
see that the USDA was pressured to "make this happen".  Their
approach is easy to detect from their web pages, like this one:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/pra/honeybees/nzealandbee.html

The responses to the questions (see Appendix II) shows that when
they lack facts, they will speculate in a manner that would prompt
Pollyanna to ask them to give her rose-tinted spectacles back.

> Also, while I think of it Jim and others here on the list.
> Where is Kasmir Bee Virus from and would that be a sleeper
> for the future what with bees so suceptible to secondaries
> anymore from problems they already have?

Funny you should ask that... someone asked the USDA about
exactly that issue.  Below is the tap-dancing around the
question that was done in response:

    [My snide remarks are indented further than
     the quotes and in brackets like this.]

  "Comment: The pest risk assessment needs to consider that
  the introduction of New Zealand viral strains (such as Kashmir
  bee virus (KBV), which is related but not identical to the strain
  of KBV found in the United States) may have more severe impact
  on honey bees in the United States than on honey bees in
  New Zealand. This is especially true if these viral strains can be
  vectored by the varroa mite."

  "Response: Appendix I of this revised pest risk assessment discusses
  Kashmir Bee Virus (KBV); however, we do not address different strains
  of KBV because that virus is not considered to be a significant disease
  of honey bees by OIE.

      [The USDA is deferring to the "OIE", a UN group called "the
      Office International Epizootics"  http://www.oie.int
      I'm sure that the USDA has more ability to both identify and deal
      with bee diseases than a group of UN bureaucrats.  I don't pay
      the obscene amount of taxes I pay to have a US agency treat
      the UN as an unquestioned scientific authority!  I would at least
      feel better if the name was "the Office For The PREVENTION of
      International Epizootics", but it seems that one must have a
      serious international epizootic to catch the attention of
      that bunch.  Perhaps KBV will become one, and then they will
      line up with everyone else to say, in the immortal words of
      Britney Spears, "Ooops, I did it again".]

  "As such, we cannot propose to impose special requirements on New Zealand
   queens and package bees imported into the United States based on KBV."

      [Translation - We don't know, we won't go find out, and we use
       our lack of knowledge as a reason to not worry about it.]

  "We agree with OIE that KBV is not a significant disease of honey bees when
   it is the only disease or pest present."

      [Funny, I can't find even a MENTION of KBV anywhere in the OIE
      website, which purports to contain full text of all their documents
      of importance, so one cannot verify what the OIE thinks about
      KBV, if they have given it any thought at all.]

      [Also funny... why do they add the phrase "when it is the only disease
      or pest present" as a qualifier to what would otherwise be a simple
      and clear response?  Is it because KBV >>IS<< a significant disease
      and just happens to be found only in combination with other identifiable
      "diseases or pests"?  Any experts on KBV care to comment?]

  "As the commenter notes, KBV is found in the United States. There is no
  evidence that the strain present in New Zealand is different from that found
  in the United States."

      [Translation - We have not looked at it, so we are going to
      assume that there is no difference.  We are going to ignore
      the entire history of virus research, and assume that KBV
      will be the first virus ever to not have both "nasty" and
      "mostly harmless" strains, and lots of strains in between.]

  "In addition, as discussed earlier, we expect that honey bees from New Zealand
   have been imported into the United States via Canada for many years."

      [Translation - But we can't list even a single US beekeeper who has
      purchased such queens.]

      [Canada?  In February?  Oh yeah, anyone would have wanted early
      packages and queens to be offloaded from an airplane in Canada
      in below-zero weather and then trans-shipped to the USA.
      TWO customs checks to clear?  Sounds like a winning approach! :)  ]

  "We have not identified any negative consequences in U.S. honey bees as a
  result of these importations."

        [Translation - We will pile speculation about a lack of reported
      problems on top of guesses that someone might have imported
      queens through Canada until we get a high enough stack to
      make it look like we did our due diligence.]

The entire document smells of sloppy workmanship.  This can
only mean that the USDA is under pressure from somewhere,
and queens/packages are a low-value pawn of a trade consession
in the global real-politik agenda of a group who should be
the first ones up against the wall come the revolution.

Bottom line, shipping from Hawaii will always be cheaper and
faster than shipping from NZ or Australia, so I don't see much
market share being captured by NZ or Australia.  Why do they
care so much about the US queen and package market?  Why does
the US feel obligated to bend over backward to let them market
their bees?  When before has trading in live animals been
steamrolled over the concerns of the very people who are the
potential customer base?

Maybe the secret deal is that Australia promised to not send
the US any more Steve Irwin "Crocodile Hunter" programs if the
US lets them offer their queens to US beekeepers.  :)


        jim