Cliff Van Eaton <[log in to unmask]>refer#: None
wrote
UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM8
\^[Subject: Pest/disease free bees... -Reply
\^[Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 15:43:38 +1200
\^[
\^[If you have any anecdotal evidence from visiting New Zealand
\^[beekeepers that New Zealand bees have 1) tracheal mite, 2)
\^[varroa, 3) European foulbrood, 4) tropilaelaps, 5) braula, I
\^[would be very interested in hearing more. Otherwise, I think you
\^[owe an apology to the New Zealand beekeeping industry, via BEE-L,
\^[if you are insinuating otherwise.
\^[
\^[As to American foulbrood, while it is true that New Zealand has
\^[its fair share of this disease, our industry has choosen what I
\^[believe is the very sensible approach of controlling its spread
\^[by "search and destroy" methods, not through the use of
\^[chemicals. I don't want to enter into a debate on the pros and
\^[cons of this drug-free AFB control in this forum, but from my
\^[experience, both in NZ and in North America, one often
\^[over-looked advantage of this approach is that the thorough
\^[examination of hives which is required tends to also lead to
\^[better over-all hive management, at least in commercial outfits.
\^[
\^[What can be said without reservation, however, is that the NZ
\^[approach has resulted in one of the best apiary registration and
\^[inspection systems found anywhere. Beekeepers here are required
\^[by law to return a yearly inspection statement, giving full
\^[details of every apiary site (including topo map grid
\^[references), and the findings of their AFB inspections. The
\^[industry also levies its members to pay for an
\^[independently-administered AFB control programme. Although
\^[government personnel carry out programme services under contract
\^[to the industry, absolutely no government funding is provided.
\^[Upwards of 10% of all registered apiaries in the country are
\^[inspected each year under that programme.
\^[
\^[This is not to say, of course, that we don't have our share of
\^[beekeepers with AFB problems; beekeepers who cause ecomonic
\^[damage to their fellow beekeepers, and who often require
\^[counselling by government apiculturalists (which has to be paid
\^[for by the industry itself).
\^[
\^[Just recently, however, the NZ Beekeepers Association has been
\^[given the opportunity, under a new piece of government
\^[legislation (called the Biosecurity Act), to write its own
\^[legally-binding procedures for the control of American foulbrood
\^[(since it is, of course, their disease).
\^[
\^[The legislation will allow for the collecting of levies to pay
\^[for an AFB control programme, and should provide, in the system
\^[that the beekeepers are proposing, sufficent financial incentives
\^[(in the form of lower levies) for beekeepers who actually do a
\^[good job in their AFB control. Under that same system, the other
\^[type of beekeeper may soon find it economically quite difficult
\^[to carry on.
TMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM>
Mr. Van Eaton,
Don't hold your breath waiting for any apology from me or
for that matter any kind of effort on my part to allow NZ bee's
into the lucrative United States market. I could care less about
your governments effort to regulate its beekeepers or promote its
regulatory efforts.
This tread was started by someone who asked a question on selling
NZ bees in the US. I gave to him my own opinion as to what is necessary
and what is not. Nothing has been presented by him or you that would
make me want to place an order for NZ bees or queens.
It may be that you are only looking to justify your own job or sell
your regulatory schemes, which you say are the greatest. I wish you luck
in that endeavor, but you are going to have a hard time making a living
with it without tax payers funds...
I have supported myself for 40 years keeping bees without any stock
from NZ. I am the one whom you are going to have to sell, if you want
my US money for your queens, distasteful as that may be to you. I am a
beekeeper NOT not a regulatory or government employee, but I am sure
they would buy few...
__ __
/ \ \^+^/ / \ Andy Nachbaur, TOB
\ \(O O)/ / Wild Bee's BBS
\ \\_// //-->> BEENET.COM
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