http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20093108-19644.html
Honeybee Blues Monday, 31 August 2009 By Stefan Moore [image:
1._denis_anderson_at_png_hive_sm.jpg] Denis Anderson in Papua New Guinea on
his mission to save they honeybee.
Image: *Honeybee Blues
*
The honeybee is the single most important insect on our planet. Without
honeybees pollinating our crops, at least a third of our food supply would
perish. But today, a devastating parasitic mite has wiped out most of the
world’s wild honeybees and decimated managed hives everywhere. So far, only
one continent on the planet remains free from this lethal epidemic –
Australia.
*Honeybee Blues* is a one-hour documentary for SBS Television that takes us
on an astonishing journey from the microscopic world of the honeybee to the
global race to save them from annihilation. At the centre of the drama is
the European honeybee, or *Apis mellifera*, that is the primary bee species
used for commercial honey production and pollination around the world. As
the film reveals, the honeybee faces the combined scourges of habitat loss,
pesticides and the stresses of industrial agriculture, but her No. 1 enemy
is a tiny parasitic mite called *Varroa destructor* that is killing
honeybees across the planet. The evolutionary battle for survival between
the honeybee and the varroa mite takes us from the Australian bush to
America’s vast industrial farmlands to the remote villages of Papua New
Guinea.
At the centre of the film is the CSIRO’s world leading bee pathologist,
Denis Anderson, who was the first to identify and name *Varroa destructor*.
As Dr Anderson explains, the mite had jumped species from an Asian honeybee
where it lived harmlessly for millions of years to a European honeybee that
had no natural resistance to the invader.
Despite Australia’s bio-security efforts, Dr Anderson believes the arrival
of *Varroa destructor* is imminent and we have to prepare. When the mite
arrived in New Zealand in 2000, most of the wild European honeybees
immediately disappeared and half the country’s commercial hives were wiped
out.
Currently, the only defenses we have are chemical treatments that the mites
eventually develop resistant to, but this is a toxic treadmill that Dr
Anderson would like to stop. He believes the ultimate answer lies in the
genes of the honeybee. He wants to identify the gene in the developing
larva that sends the chemical signal that tells the mite it is the right
time to reproduce. Then he wants to switch it off. If he is successful, it
may help save the European honeybee from annihilation.
This crucial research, however, is being stymied by a lack of funding.
Recently, the Federal Government knocked back a request by a special
parliamentary committee for $50 million for bio-security measures, research,
education and training to protect Australia’s honeybee and pollination
industries. Only a small amount of funding ($150,000 a year for the next two
years) has been provided for existing bio-security measures.
As for the research, education and training that is so desperately needed,
the Government expects agricultural industries to contribute funds through a
newly created alliance between the honeybee and pollination industries
called Pollination Australia. So far, $357,000 has been committed but,
according to Dr Anderson this falls far short of what is required. The
nascent organization, he says, would greatly benefit from Government seed
funding as it will take at least five years to educate agricultural
industries about the critical value of honeybee pollination.
In the meantime, Dr Anderson believes that time is running out. Developing a
varroa resistant bee needs to be going on now, not after the mite arrives on
our shores.
In addition to the threat of *Varroa destructor*, *Honeybee Blues* reveals a
new peril just off our shores. The film follows Dr Anderson to Papua New
Guinea where he discovers a dangerous new mite, called *Varroa jacobsoni*.
The finding is of vital significance to Australia. In 2007 an incursion of
Asian honeybees was found in far north Queensland that could potentially
carry this new lethal mite. So far 43 hives of Asian bees have been found
around Cairns.
The Asian honeybee incursion is also jeopardising Australia’s live bee
exports. For the past few years Australia has been exporting European
honeybees to the United States to replenish their hives that have been
decimated by *Varroa destructor*. In the documentary, tensions rise when the
US finds out about the Asian honeybee incursion in Queensland and considers
banning Australia’s bees.
*Honeybee Blues <http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/showcases/honeybeeblues/>
* will be screened on SBS on November 17 at 7:30 PM. The film is produced
by Susan MacKinnon and Anna Cater and directed by Stefan Moore.
For further information, please contact Mitra Films Pty
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Juanse Barros J.
APIZUR S.A.
Carrera 695
Gorbea - CHILE
+56-45-271693
08-3613310
http://apiaraucania.blogspot.com/
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