Randy wrote

> Juanse, I'm a bit surprised that this is "breaking news," as Dr Anderson
> detailed his finding of the new strain of Varroa jacobsoni at the 2009 ABF
> convention in Sparks!

Probably only breaking news because it often takes the media a long while to 
catch up with the "latest" and also as Denis Anderson is often out of the 
country the media probably took a while to catch up with him

> I would also disagree that
>
>> >"most Australian beekeepers are vary familiar with methods used around 
>> >the
>> world to control varroa."
>
> Heck, I just returned from speaking to US beekeepers in Hawaii, who were 
> not
> at all familiar with methods of varroa management!

I would think that the majority of Australian beekeepers know about control 
i.e. bung in a few strips, but when it comes to varroa management then that 
is a different story.  Randy, I think many of those in the audience at 
Cairns in a couple of weeks time will need to do some rethinking after your 
presentation.

> The Aussie bee exporters are I'm sure concerned, since if this mite is
> brought to Australia (a very easy task what with the canoe traffic between
> the islands and the mainland, often carrying bee hives), then World Trade
> Organization rules would allow the US and other countries to prohibit 
> import
> of Aussie bees.

The canoe traffic between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the top islands in 
Torres Strait would not be carrying bee hives.  Bees sting and most natives 
from PNG or Torres Strait are fearful of bees.  So there would be next to no 
chance that they would be carrying hives.  In PNG, most mellifera hives are 
in the highlands well away from the coast line opposite these top islands. 
There is no canoe traffic from these islands to the mainland.  It is over a 
100 kilometres (60 miles) from these top islands to the mainland.  There 
have been cerana on these top islands (part of the Torres Strait Protected 
Zone) since about 1992 and they have not naturally migrated any further 
south.  The gap to the next island is about 35 kilometres.  There are no 
mellifera on these top islands.

The canoes or boats which come cross to the top islands from PNG to trade 
are inspected by the Quarantine Assistants on these islands.

Randy, you will get up to the minute news as we have Denis Anderson plus an 
entomologist from AQIS, who has spent time on PNG helping out with the 
jacobsoni situation, at our conference in Cairns.

Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA 

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