RE: To halt the interstate shipment of bees, 

Kathy writes: > to my knowledge, no one is proposing this option as growers are reliant on this practice to meet their needs for pollination services,

The wording from the petition:

> Major threats to the survival of these wild bee pollinators include the potential for spread of disease from *commercially produced bees that are transported throughout the country*

> Specifically, the signatories of this letter request that APHIS create rules prohibiting the movement of bumble bees outside of their native ranges.

You could take issue with the fact that they refer to bumble bees in the second quote, but the absence of a reference to bumble bees in the first part is quite conspicuous, considering the careful wording overall.

But consider this: quarantines on the movement honey bees were tried in an effort to limit honey bee pathogens and in all cases failed. The only thing quarantines have done is add to the expense of doing business, and hamper the importation of fresh stock from other countries which could in fact benefit the health of the bees. 

Stop and think for a minute about the millions of dollars spent on the Russian bee breeding program which could have been saved, were it not for the draconian quarantine system on honey bee importation -- which was set up to prevent the importation of tracheal mites, and extended to prevent the importation of varroa and African bees, which it did not do.

Further, they propose that bumble bees must have a clean bill of health, presumably including absence of DWV. This can only be detected by costly PCR testing, and presumably the native bee populations already have, so any attempt to prevent the spread of it retroactively is absurd.

Following is an example of one state (Rhode Island) attempting to prevent the spread of varroa. It looks pretty silly in retrospect

TITLE:  Out-of-State Honey Bee Quarantine To Prevent Entry of Varroa Mite (Varroa jacobsoni) Into Rhode Island.
AUTHORITY: Rhode Island General Laws: Chapter 42-35, Chapter 42-17, and Chapter 4-12.
PURPOSE:	To regulate the transport and shipment of live honey bees into and through the State of Rhode Island for the purpose of preventing the introduction of this destructive pest into the state.
4.00 PURSUANT TO THIS QUARANTINE 4.01	No honey bees in hives, nuecli or brood comb, including domestic bees that have been transported across state lines for pollination services or honey production, may be imported into Rhode Island from outside the State unless proper steps have been followed to insure against the introduction of Varroa Mites.

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