> When I inquired
> around the world about the requirement s to test our Hawaiian bees
> I was told repeatedly that to prove a negative we would
> have to test 100% of our Hawaiian bee colonies. This is the point
>  of this posting.
 
It isn't necessary to test 100% of your colonies.  Without going
into the details of it, what needs to be established is that for a
given percentage of confidence, your bees have been sampled and
tested and found to be free of the particular pest/disease.  That
simply means the choice of which colonies to sample, how to sample,
even when to sample, which test to use, etc, must be part of an
overall survey design that will allow it to be said *with confidence*
that the country is free of a pest or disease.  Though I know you
don't trust them, you should talk about this to a scientist-type
person, even if they aren't involved in beekeeping.  The survey
design would be similar...
 
You don't seem to have any problem stating that Hawaii is free of
given pests/diseases *without* testing - why do you find it so hard
to believe New Zealand when such testing *has* occured????
 
> Granted there is no scientific data available to
> prove that we do not in fact have some of the pests and diseases
> of honey bees.
 
I guess that kind of summarises the problem you face...
 
Walter, all of your references to diseases that have been reported in
New Zealand and the testing procedures you refer to come from
material I have provided to you in your 'search for truth'.  You've
also made it clear you don't believe or trust anything I have said
to you about our beekeeping or pest/disease status.
 
I'm sorry you can't perceive the New Zealand beekeepers' willingness
to provide an 'open' process to help resolve such trade matters, and
continually fall back to a position of utter mistrust and abuse.
 
Why don't you come down here to visit and see for yourself, perhaps?
I would be happy to help you come to a personal conclusion that might
end some of the unproductive backbiting and bickering that seems to
predominate in these postings...
 
  (\           Nick Wallingford
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