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Thread: SBA Hive beetle Any progress?

  1. #21
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Jay Evans and colleagues have published a study using genetic tracing of SHB … perhaps these fines could be retrospectively imposed ;-)

    http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/AN10027 (sorry can't provide access to the full ms)

    Worrying opening to the final sentence of the abstract "Excellent dispersal of beetles, aided in some cases by migratory beekeeping and the bee trade ...."

  2. #22
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    A few weeks ago we thought calabria in Italy was an shb free area, we now know differently.
    To allow imports from anywhere with beekeeping contacts to this area is bonkers until everyone has a proper look in the new season, vigilant and forewarned by what's happened to the unfortunate beekeepers of calabria.

  3. #23

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    Worrying opening to the final sentence of the abstract "Excellent dispersal of beetles, aided in some cases by migratory beekeeping and the bee trade ...."
    Not surprising is it when you consider that large numbers of hives are concentrated at Almond pollination time and then moved all around the USA. A busy package industry has also helped it move over long distances.

    A bit different to the UK.

  4. #24
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    If you look at the number of package and queen imports from Italy alone (1200+ and 1700+ respectively in 2014) and compare it to the scale of UK beekeeping (~200,000 colonies in total) then 2% of colonies in any one year here might be of Italian origin. If you consider all imports (nucs, packages and queens, perhaps ~12,000 in total) it might be 6% of all colonies. Figures from Beebase.

    It's certainly much bigger in the USA (2.5+ million colonies) and there's certainly lots more migratory beekeeping there, but that doesn't alter the fact that the bee trade was identified in that abstract as an efficient means of spreading SHB and there is a significant amount of bees traded from Italy and the rest of Europe.

  5. #25
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    fatshark, the quantities of imports you write about indicates that we DON'T need them; Our own bees can easily make up numbers themselves.

  6. #26
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    .

    What does a stealth envelope look like?

    I've no idea -- just can't see them !¬

  7. #27
    Senior Member busybeephilip's Avatar
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    Got this petition this morning to stop imports with the aim of preventing arrival of SHB into the UK if anyone is interested in signing ?

  8. #28
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adam View Post
    fatshark, the quantities of imports you write about indicates that we DON'T need them; Our own bees can easily make up numbers themselves.
    I agree … but the point I was making is that bee trade is a significant route of pathogen spread.

    Perhaps everyone - including the association officers - should be forced to watch Michael Palmer and his Sustainable Apiary … he's talking at the Somerset Beekeepers Lecture Day early next year. With better preparation, improved IPM, more timely training, more efforts at colony improvement, autumn requeening etc etc we would not need imports in the UK.

  9. #29
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by busybeephilip View Post
    Got this petition this morning to stop imports with the aim of preventing arrival of SHB into the UK if anyone is interested in signing ?
    We already have two mentioned on this forum:

    here (Eric's petition directed to the Scottish Government),

    and here (to Elizabeth Truss). Do you have a different one in mind?
    Kitta

  10. #30

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    Will a ban be in place before the 2015 imports start coming to UK? No, probably not, if ever, but at least it has everyone thinking and talking about the problem.
    Last edited by Beegirl; 03-12-2014 at 10:45 PM.

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