> ... how would you advise Australia (or any remaining varroa naïve
landmass) to approach the situation when it is determined that varroa has
established itself to stay?


With the caveat that I am uniquely ill-qualified to render an opinion on
the subject, this question fascinates me nevertheless.


Biosecurity aside, it seems to my mind that the first question a sovereign
state would have to define in this circumstance is what is the relative
weighting of the economic impact that potential approaches might have in
both the short-run and the long-run. Looking at the extremes of both:


Minimal Short-Run - Outside of the quarantine zone, no additional
restrictions are placed on apicultural trade nor migratory beekeeping. This
allows pollination to progress relatively unimpacted for the upcoming
season but carries with it the maximum risk of quickly spreading varroa to
new areas.


Minimal Long-Run- Immediately suspend all honey bee movements in the
country. This severely cripples pollination for the upcoming year but
minimizes the spread of varroa to new areas.


Obviously there are myriad permutations in between the two poles and this
is an over-simplistic generalization, but it seems to me there would have
to be a clear consensus to generally favor one approach or the other before
a remediation plan focused on the anticipated fall-out from the decision
could be developed.

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