NZ has shipped package bees and queens to Canada for about 20 years now. The exports are generally trans-shipped (taken from one plane to another) in Hawaii. The State of Hawaii has now closed this off entirely, ostensibly due to the risk of bee diseases from NZ. Dr Liu's work, referred to in the letter from the State of Hawaii's Dept of Ag, has been challenged in American bee magazines. I'd be curious to see what sort of response (scientific, please, not emotive) there is on this issue. Its that fine line where bee science is being used to create trade barriers, and its very important that the science be good! FROM BUZZWORDS, THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION, NUMBER 51, APRIL 1993. BEE EXPORTS JEOPARDISED This year's shipments of New Zealand queens and package bees to Canada could be at risk, thanks to actions recently taken by state and federal governments in the United States. The lucrative Canadian market, worth over $1.5 million to New Zealand and Australian producers, is currently in limbo following a decision by the US Department of Agriculture to agree to a Hawaiian state government request to end transshipments of live bees through its borders. The move follows hard on the heals of a Canadian federal government decision to allow the import of queen bees produced in Hawaii for the 1993 production year. The Hawaiians had tried unsuccessfully for several years to access the Canadian market which was closed to live bee shipments from the continental United States in 1987 in an effort to keep out the Varroa mite. The move resulted in losses to US queen producers estimated at NZ$6.8 million per year (see Buzzwords 30). The decision by Canadian authorities to allow Hawaii queens into their country is seen as a victory for elements in the Canadian industry who believe that the US border should no longer be closed. Varroa outbreaks have now been identified in several Canadian provinces and last year the Canadian federal government announced that it would no longer pay all the costs for varroa mite control programmes. Unfortunately for the Canadians, however, if the Hawaiian ban remains in place, Canadians will be unable to obtain package bees from any outside source. The Canadian approval is only for queens from Hawaii, and even if the Hawaiians obtained export clearance for packages it is unlikely that they could supply more than a small portion of Canada's package needs. With those sorts of pressures on the Canadian industry, it's conceivable that the Canadians could call for a return to package imports from California, just so they can continue to restock their hives. The Canadian authorities are requiring several strict export certification procedures for Hawaiian queens. These include the testing of 15% of the producer's colonies for varroa and one hive per apiary for tracheal mite. However, the procedures do not require area freedoms for American foulbrood, as required for New Zealand queens. Hawaii currently does not have an American foulbrood control programme and has no government register of beekeepers and apiaries. The Hawaiians, for their part, have used some very tenuous arguments in an effort to get the USDA to stop transshipments of our bees through their ports. Mr. Yukio Kitagawa, chairperson of the Hawaiian State Government Board of Agriculture, claims that bee shipments from Australia and New Zealand pose the threat of introducing foreign diseases and pests into Hawaii. As evidence for this, he quotes the articles written by Dr. Stephen Liu, from Agriculture Canada, which appeared in a number of bee publications in North America in the past several years. According to Mr. Kitagawa, Dr. Liu 'detected two serious honey bee diseases, not present in Hawaii, in samples of package bees shipped into Canada from New Zealand and Australia'. The diseases mentioned are Kashmir bee virus and melanosis. As Denis Anderson pointed out in his rebuttal in The American Bee Journal in 1991 (see Buzzwords 39), Dr. Liu's articles 'omitted important published information about Kashmir bee virus and made claims that were not supported by scientific evidence.' There is also much disagreement amongst scientists as to whether melanosis is even a disease. But the real point is that the Hawaiians don't even know whether they have these two problems (we're sure they do) because no one has really ever looked. Dr. Liu made it clear last year that his comments about Kashmir and melanosis were directed at 'academically informing' beekeepers and were not really scientific articles (see Buzzwords 45). Still, that hasn't stopped the Hawaiians from grasping this very inconsequential straw and holding the whole of Australasia's Canadian bee exports to ransom. We strongly believe it is about time someone in the North American bee science establishment took Dr. Liu to task for his lack of scientific ethics. Dr. Liu needs to apologise to US and Canadian officials for the errors in his articles on Kashmir and melanosis and he needs to do it now. * * * STOP PRESS * * * Agriculture Canada has just approved several new transit/transhipment ports for this year's package bee exports to Canada. These include Singapore, Seoul, London, and Hong Kong. There is still a problem, however, of available space on aircraft. We understand that at this point only one air carrier has agreed to consider shipping packages through Hong Kong. We have also just been informed that the US authorities will allow transshipments of live bees through LA for valid sales contracts made prior to March 19. Contact your local AAO for details. ------------------------------------- Nick Wallingford National Beekeepers Assn of NZ Internet [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------