Hi All,

Re sampling:

"It should be noted that inspection based on sampling always involves a 
degree of error. The acceptance of

some degree of risk that the pests are present is inherent in the use of 
sampling procedures for inspection.

Inspection using statistically based sampling methods can provide confidence 
that the incidence of a pest is

below a certain level, but it can never prove that a pest is truly absent 
from a consignment."

from 
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/plant_exports/downloads/draft_ispm_sampling_consignments.pdf

The bottom line question is, "What options you have once the missed pathogen 
inevitably slips through?"  If you have a reasonable probability

of success in eradicating it once it enters, then sampling and imports make 
sense.  On the other hand, if it is likely that once the pathogen

enters, that it will be quickly disseminated throughout the commercial bee 
population, then there is no chance of stuffing it back into

the box, and we will then have to deal with pathogen in perpetuity.  As far 
as the pathogens that we are speaking of--viruses, tropilaelaps, etc--once

individual slips through, it is unlikely that we will ever be able to 
contain them.

Randy Oliver

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