From: Kim Flottum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 10:36 AM
Subject: CATCH THE BUZZ MESSAGE - ASIAN BEES IN AUSTRALIA

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CATCH THE BUZZ

Will Asian Bees in Australia threaten honey bee exports to the U.S.?

APIS CERANA FOUND IN AUSTRALIA

   There's growing concern in Australia after the Queensland Department
of Primary Industries finds a hive of Asian honey bees in the mast of a
yacht that had been docked in Cairns in the far north of the state for
two years.

   The Asian honeybee, Apis cerana, carries two breeds of the Varroa
mite that have the potential to devastate Australia's honey industry.

   Australia is the last major honey-producing country still free of
Varroa but the Asian bee is common in areas to Australia's north such as
Papua New Guinea and Southeast Asia.

   The department believes the Asian bees came to Australia on a freight
ship and colonized the yacht. Spokesman Ron Glanville tells the
Australian Broadcasting Corp. the hive has been destroyed and officers
are looking for others.

   "The biggest problem with Asian honeybees is they can carry exotic
mites that can infect our normal honeybees and can be quite devastating
depending on the strain or the species of mite," he says. "They can
actually be quite devastating in terms of killing off our normal honey
bees.

   "The procedure is to kill the nest at night when all the bees come
back to the hive. The big question is whether there are any other bees
in the vicinity And that'll be a longer term program for us and we'll be
setting up pheromone traps in the vicinity to see if we can detect any
other bee hives."

   Beekeeper Maurie Damon tells ABC Radio he is worried the pest may
have invaded other areas.

   "A few months ago, a friend brought in some undersized bees from the
Gordonvale area and I thought they look like cerana but they couldn't be
cerana because I hadn't had any indication of cerana in the
neighborhood," he says.

   "I'm going to have to go back now and talk to this beekeeper and get
some more bees and have it checked out thoroughly, because it is a bit
of a worry. 

   "If it has been here so long that it has spread as far south as
Gordonvale, we've got problems."

   Gordonvale is 15 miles south of Cairns and is the town where the cane
toad - now one of Australia's worst pests - was deliberately introduced
in 1935.

   Queensland has some 80,000 commercial hives that produce 165 pounds
of honey a hive in an average year.

   The 6,000 tonnes of honey produced in the state each year is valued
at A$24 million (US$19.8 million). Beeswax production is estimated at
100 tonnes a year valued at A$450,000 (US$371,500). Exports of 20,000
queen bees at A$15 (US$12.38) each represent A$300,000 (US$247,700) to
the industry annually.

   Department biosecurity officer Hamish Lamb says in a briefing paper
that the Asian bee is the natural host to external mites, Varroa spp.
including V. destructor and V. jacobsoni. Both species of mites are very
similar in appearance and may be distinguished only by microscopic
examination. 

   The Asian bees look very similar to A.mellifer but are smaller and
have more predominant abdominal striping. They naturally co-exist with
Varroa mites and have mechanisms to cope with them however honeybees do
not and, once infested with V. destructor, the demise of the colony is
rapid.

This report comes from Bee Cultures's Alan Harman.

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