Hello All,
In my opinion sorry by reporters does little. For two decades those bees
were imported into Canada and thousands of hives were brought south into the
U.S..
Reputations were hurt for what?   The CCD team was pushed to find something
to show for their effort regardless if their conclusion needed further
research to be a viable  hypothesis!

>Meanwhile, Australian bees are "available now" according
to an ad in the November "Bee Culture", implying that
USDA-ARS had better work quick.

The information I get is that there is not enough proof Australian hives are
anything more than a valuable beekeeping tool to certain beekeepers to do
the nations pollination.  The import we go on I have been told.

> Sadly, bees imported from overseas have never been "inspected" prior to
export with anything more than a glance in the general direction
of a few hives, as I point out in my article in the same edition of Bee
Culture:

This is totally FALSE! Maybe if you spent more time on beekeeping research
and less on baseball you would get your facts straight. Go back and reread
my articles! Your lack of information amazes me! I have shared many times
the high quality of the Australian inspection service. Its like comparing a
corvette (Australia) to a model T.(US).  The Australian package industry
pays $120 an hour for the inspection which lasts for hours. EACH hive
package bees are taken from is inspected. Pictures in my first article!

There is not a *queen import area* in the world on par with the Australians.
What about the other import?
Did the IAPV virus come in with the USDA-ARS import of Russian bees? How do
you know? Were the queens checked?
Spreading fear is an old concept used by those with an agenda! It seems you
have been against the import since the start as you will never need those
bees so now you are trying to find a reason say the end of beekeeping will
come from the import. There were those in Canada saying the same 20 years
ago but they had to eat their words.
Better stick to baseball!
bob


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