Information for discussion by the New Zealand Beekeeping Industry, SOE's, Government departments and Parliamentarians.

WHY DO WE HAVE VARROA SO WIDESPREAD IN NEW ZEALAND BEFORE DETECTION?

CAN WE ERADICATE VARROA?

HOW DO WE ERADICATE VARROA?

We have looked at parts of the problem but left some parts entirely to other people to make recommendations.   I think it is time for beekeepers to look at this problem as a whole and not leave it to other experts.

What are the things that can be done to perhaps increase the odds of eradicating Varroa? Here are some of my suggestions:-

1. First, we should set up a Varroa Eradication or Control organisation managed by the Beekeeping Industry and MAF Biosecurity in equal partnership.

2. Beekeepers and AgriQual to be the preferred contractors.

3. All beekeepers and owners of apiaries within a 7 km radius of an established Varroa find to be notified by AgriQual and asked for exact current hive numbers on each site.   This to be audited by AgriQual to confirm numbers and that no hives have been shifted in or shifted out and that the beekeeper has placed on each hive the beekeeper identification number and the MAF site number and possibly a unique New Zealand hive number.   Also to check on any illegal movement of hives.   An instant $500 administration payment for each hive not complying to the NBA (if legal), or prosecute under the Biosecurity Act.

4. At the same time as above exact and detailed depopulation area maps to be publicly notified in local papers.   Included in this notice a four day amnesty on the registration of any hives not currently registered.

5. Controlled atmosphere chillers to be hired if possible in each positive area of Varroa mite.   If unable to hire, hire reefer containers with mobile controlled atmosphere units to be brought to the area of depopulation by swing loaders.

6. All hives with live bees or dead hives, should be shifted in to the controlled atmosphere chillers by the owners and local branch members to assist. All shifting into these controlled atmosphere units to be done at night.   Beehives to be left in units until mites are dead, plus same time again and that there are no bees attached to the outside of the containers or the chiller unit.

7. All hive numbers are to be checked into the chiller units and invoices made out by AgriQual personnel and signed by the owner.

8. Any bees in registered hives, and the beekeepers work for delivering and taking hives away from the controlled atmosphere units, to be paid for at the rate of $150 per hive, by government within 20 days of eradication.   This $150 pays for the numbering of hives, cartage to the controlled atmosphere unit, placing hives into the unit, picking up the hives from the controlled atmosphere unit and transporting to the storage area at a later date, paying for the rental of the storage area, removing dead bees in storage area, vermin control, taking hives out into the field again and placing into apiary sites, purchase of 4 frame nucleus hive or package bees, and all associated costs to building up to the strength of a productive hive again.

9. If any products are found which will kill all Varroa mites and not bees, then this perhaps could be applied in the same manner, but in the meantime all bees, Varroa and brood, pollen mites, wax moth and any other living creatures are to be killed.

10. All gear to be stored (or used after four weeks) by the beekeeper in bee tight sheds anywhere in the north island - no restrictions.

11. All transporting of hives or boxes must be done at night from these fumigation units to storage areas.

12. All costs of AgriQual controlled atmosphere units to be the governments.   All hives within a 20 km radius of a positive find to have the most effective method of finding Varroa mites, used on all apiaries, which I believe at this stage is to put in Apistan strips and sticky boards for five to seven days by the beekeeper.   The beekeeper will be paid $10 per hive for placing in and removing Apistan strips and sticky boards, to be provided free of charge by the government.

13. All sticky boards to be checked by branch members under appropriate govt supervision ( so as beekeepers get training for Varroa mite recognition).   Checking of board for Varroa mites, govt to pay to the branch $2 per board.

14. All ferral colonies in Te Puke to be killed by walking and finding and destroying, samples to be taken wherever possible, and by a poisoning programme if deemed necessary up to a 7 km radius.   The other small outbreaks in Rawene north of Auckland, Te Kawhata north of Huntly, Te Rore north of Te Awamutu and Raurimu at Tongariro National Park and Tapu north of Thames and one other site just north of Thames are unlikely to have many, if any, infected ferral colonies at this stage and should be treated as above.   The Army should be used to eradicate ferrals in difficult terrain, such as just north of Thames.   This site will also probably require poisoning because of the difficult terrain.

15. The owners of any hives that are required to be removed from an area because of a poisoning programme will be paid $10.   This $10 will recompense the cost of moving hives possibly twice and the cost of arranging a new temporary location.

16. The above eradication if started immediately, should clear these areas well before pollination takes place and will not unduly affect beekeeping.   Hive numbers will be relatively low, also the expense of achieving eradication should be relatively low.   Any new finds also should be treated in the above manner.

17. The Hauraki Plains is the next area to eradicate, as it will be relatively easy to deal with ferrals in this area compared with Auckland.   I would expect a few ferral colonies to possibly have Varroa mites in the Hauraki Plains area.   The Hauraki Plains should have Varroa eradicated by next Spring.

18. The Auckland area will be the most difficult area to eradicate Varroa and it will I believe, take more time to eradicate from Auckland than from any other area.   But the big advantage of Auckland because of its geographic position with its narrow neck of land with sea on each side, is that it would be relatively easy to 'fence' off from the rest of the north island.

19. Beekeepers throughout the north island to be provided with free sticky boards and Apistan strips so they can test all of their own hives, they will be paid $10 per hive for the placement and removal of the sticky boards and strips.   These to be left in the hives for one week.

20. Only hives 20 km away from a positive Varroa mite find to be used for pollination.

21. All hive and bee movements to cease in the north island for eight months starting after the completion of kiwifruit pollination 2000.

22. Any hives found to be infected with Varroa mite or within 7 km of that find will be eradicated.   Once eradication has taken place equipment can be treated as stated earlier.

23. All empty supers to be delivered by trucks to apiaries at night so avoiding movement of bees, or during daylight hours in a closed truck in which bees can be eradicated between apiaries.
    All honey to be placed into a closed truck in which bees can be eradicated before arriving at the next apiary.

24. If a period longer than one year for total beehive movement restriction, all hives should be left in orchards.   Could be shut in for 10 days before flowering in one years time, to give orchards very good pollination.

25. If it is decided that a less rigorous approach should be taken, hives should be shifted out from pollination to sites where they must remain for the rest of the year until being shifted back into orchards the following year.   This will mean only the same pollination hives get shifted each year, but no other hive or bee movement.

26. All raising of cells to be done in the site that the hives are going to be requeened in.

27. All exports of live bees from the north island will cease for one year.

28. This approach will stop all live bee movement for approximately eight months or if hives left in orchards for one year - could be one year eight months when it would be obvious whether eradication was likely to be successful.

29. All illegal hive movement or bee movement to be taken very seriously and prosecutions to be made wherever deemed appropriate.

30. Any hives in the Auckland infected zone required for pollination of crops in the Auckland infected zone, to be immediately fed and continuously fed a cocktail of miticides until after pollination, then probably destroyed and then further eradication of the ferrals can be carried on until completion is achieved before the next pollination year.

31. All AFB hives to be burnt on site where possible, otherwise destroyed and wrapped and transported in a sealed van to point of burning.

32. Full payment to be made by government on all lost profit.

33. One of the actions required in the eradication of Varroa would be to find an appropriate Varroa mite expert to give us advice on the feasibility of this programme.   Also an expert in Viruses which actually normally kills the bees with an infection of Varroa.

34. After meeting with the leading expert on Varroa in the world, and other beekeepers in Auckland on Monday 5 June, it appears, as some beekeepers expected, that the movement of Varroa naturally, is probably in excess of 50 km per year - confirmed by research overseas. There is no evidence that it will be less in New Zealand.   If the assumption is going to be used by MAF that it is less in NZ, evidence should be produced that this is correct, or the assumption not used.

    This confirmation of beekeepers' knowledge goes to show how important the knowledge of beekeepers is and that they should be involved in the design of the Operational Plan for the Eradication of Varroa mites.   This confirms beekeepers thinking that hives with Varroa mites should have been eradicated weeks ago to make eradication more likely to be successful.

35. The second point that must be recognised is the extreme difficulty of living with Varroa and even if the hives were to be treated with Apistan now, many hives will still die from the effect of bees having had Varroa.   ERADICATION OR TREATMENT SHOULD TAKE PLACE IMMEDIATELY.

36. Testing of Hives For Varroa with the placing of Apistan in hives for 24 hours to find the extent of hives with heavy infestations of Varroa was acceptable in the first instance in the warm area of Auckland.   It is not acceptable to have used this procedure to find low levels of Varroa infestation in cooler areas later in the year.   Once again, this has been caused through no beekeeping expertise in the decision making.   It was obvious to some beekeepers that these procedures were not correct.   We do appreciate that up to this stage it has been a Biosecurity exercise but we believe use of beekeepers knowledge should have been sought from those running the Biosecurity exercise.

37. Because of the actions of government and its SOE's in not allowing beekeeper input into its vital decision making roles, some very bad decisions have been made, in particular the sampling methods used, the spread of Varroa by hives not being depopulated, and the misunderstanding of how far the Varroa mite can spread naturally each year; Government has greatly reduced the chance of eradicating Varroa.

    If Varroa can not be eradicated this will cost our Industry and Country a huge amount. The beekeeping industry has already invested millions of dollars into this Biosecurity exercise, by supporting the exercise with non paid beekeepers in the delimiting survey.   Action is now required for at least a $50,000,000 cash injection, no matter what the decision of Government is made on eradication or control of Varroa.   The expertise of beekeepers should be used in beekeeping matters.

38. Let us all think about why we are in this predicament.   How did the breakdown of the border security occur?   I notice AgriQuality NZ Ltd's report to the annual conference of the National Beekeepers' Association of New Zealand at Ashburton, 14-15 July 1999, that under the heading 'Surveillance', only 70 adult bee samples were tested for internal and external mites.   I assume these were the only samples that AgriQual collected from high risk areas, less than one seventh they normally collect.   Why so few?   Did they have a severe reduction in the funding?   I know they received samples from beekeepers as well, less than usual, which were tested for mites, but where are the rest of the 500 samples that they should have collected from high risk areas?   Were all these samples actually tested for Varroa mites?

    The very substantial reduction of samples taken from what appears to be the introduction site of Varroa mites in New Zealand and the timing of this reduction, all appear to coincide with the timing and place that the mites should have been found.   The Government must accept this failure of not monitoring this area for Exotics as in the past, and the financial consequences it has on the New Zealand beekeeping, horticultural and agricultural industries.
    Not only must Government accept the consequences, but it must pay retribution for the damage done to the industries concerned.

I ask for your assistance in achieving this.

Russell Berry

1. MAF Biosecurity chose AgriQual as the contractors to write the Operational Plan Eradication of Varroa.

2. AgriQual probably chose most of the contributors.   MAF Biosecurity may have had some input.

3. OUTCOME -no practicing beekeepers or beekeeping representatives among the contributors.

4. OUTCOME - a document (Operational Plan eradication of Varroa) which does not have input from the major stakeholders.

5. This has had the effect of a document that loses the greatest information pool New Zealand has on beekeeping and sadly the Document reflects this.

6. Why has this been allowed to happen?

7. I suspect the lack of understanding or acknowledgment by MAF or AgriQual of where the greatest information pool is.   A sinister person may say that the absolute control of writing the Operational Plan by other than the major stakeholders, would give the indication that the absolute control of the Operational Plan for eradication of Varroa will be in other than beekeepers hands.   This will be absolutely unacceptable to the beekeeping industry.   This unacceptability may be softened by high financial support.

8. It appears that the final version of the Operational Plan dated 28 May 2000, as presented to the Technical meeting in Wellington last week, was indeed intended to be the final version, as there was an embargo placed on it and it was only circulated initially, to two of the five NBA executive members.

9. MAF Biosecurity There appear to be many people in MAF Biosecurity who are supportive and have the enthusiasm to eradicate Varroa mite in New Zealand.   These people I believe, are led by a person less enthusiastic about the possibility of eradicating Varroa from New Zealand.   It would appear that the enthusiastic have been sidelined without any consultation with the major stakeholders.   This situation is very strange as Treasury still appears to be very supportive of eradication

This may explain why it was actually agreed at the Technical meeting last week, and later with Don Bell of the NBA executive, to release the Operational Plan Eradication Of Varroa and to post it out to beekeepers and then to rescinding this action.   This action was stopped by MAF.   There appears to be a blatant abuse on the beekeeping industry's rights when you consider that executive have been told by MAF that the beekeepers and MAF were to be equal partners in decisions made on Varroa mites.

The only avenues this leaves us to pursue, is the news media and a direct approach to the Minister.

Russell Berry