Dear All, <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >And we beekeepers think we have problems. >The letter below should give us a close-up view of what is going on in >England. It's worth also mentioning that the current foot-and-mouth outbreak in the UK is beginning to have a serious effect on beekeepers. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is so infectious that there are tight controls on movements onto agricultural land throughout the UK. Such restrictions are most severe in areas where foot-and-mouth has been confirmed, but farmers everywhere are understandably extremely unwilling to allow any visitors onto their land for fear of introducing FMD infection. Very many beekeepers in the UK have their bees on agricultural land, and due to the intermixed nature of the British Countryside, livestock are generally not far away. So as Spring approaches, many beekeepers are finding that it is impossible to get access to their apiaries to give their bees the attention they need. The problem at present is that Spring is running about a month late, and conditions are too cold and wet for bees to forage properly, so some colonies are beginning to be running out of food and are in need of feeding. However, once the good weather arrives, colonies are going to be in desperate need of supers, and management to control swarming. It's a particular problem for large-scale beekeepers who will be wishing to move colonies on economically important pollination contracts during the next few weeks. I have recently spoken to a number of beekeepers who have already accepted that they are unlikely to be able to able to visit their bees at all until the FMD outbreak is controlled. However, current epidemiological modelling suggests that this will take several months at least. By which time the honey flow will probably be over. For Bee Inspectors it's a real problem too because we very soon need to start visiting apiaries to carry out our disease control and advisory work. However, we just won't be able to go to some places at all, and elsewhere will have follow the most stringent disinfection procedures to avoid any risk of spreading FMD infection. Several Bee Inspectors have been seconded to help with controlling the outbreak in the worst affected areas, and more may follow as the outbreak continues. For those who want further information on the UK foot-and-mouth outbreak, the MAFF website at http://www.maff.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/fmd/default.htm is a good place to start. James -- ___________________________________________________________________________ James Morton South-Eastern Regional Bee Inspector Central Science Laboratory National Bee Unit Tel/fax: +44 (0)20 8571 6450 Mobile: 07719 924 418 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Web: http://www.csl.gov.uk ___________________________________________________________________________ Disclaimer The information contained in this message may include privileged, proprietary or confidential information. Please treat it with the same respect that you would expect for your own information. If you have received it in error, we apologise, and ask that you contact the CSL sender immediately and erase it from your computer. Thank you for your co-operation. Further information on confidentiality of our communications, can be found at http://www.csl.gov.uk/email.htm