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Thread: EFSA report on risks of spread of small hive beetle

  1. #1
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Default EFSA report on risks of spread of small hive beetle

    This Scientific Opinion was published yesterday by the European Food Safety Agency.

    http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/151215

    Some obvious (and sensible) stuff on the movement of hives, bumble bees and 'commodities', and also this:

    EFSA also assessed risk-mitigating factors that could be effective in ensuring safe intra-EU trade of live bees, apiculture products and by-products. The main conclusions were:


    • detection of SHB by visual inspection has been found to be highly effective and feasible for consignments of queen bees;
    • use of fine mesh (with a maximum 2mm pore size) to avoid contamination during transport is highly effective for consignments of bees, bee products to be used in apiculture, non-extracted comb honey and used beekeeping equipment;
    • freezing, heating and desiccation of bee products and used equipment are highly effective at reducing the risk of SHB transmission;
    • beekeepers should keep records of movements of their hives to facilitate investigation of outbreaks.


    I'm not sure whether they are suggesting that these measures should apply to all EU remaining trade outside the 100km zones. The measures would be too weak for trade from inside these areas - detection of eggs in/on queen cages is not easy, fine mesh is difficult to fix without gaps and you'd have to be sure that there were no beetles inside.

  2. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    I'm not sure whether they are suggesting that these measures should apply to all EU remaining trade outside the 100km zones. The measures would be too weak for trade from inside these areas - detection of eggs in/on queen cages is not easy, fine mesh is difficult to fix without gaps and you'd have to be sure that there were no beetles inside.
    One mitigating factor there would be that banking of queens in their cages prior to sale is relatively rare in Europe. Most times the queens are freshly caged....even if just a change cage.....with fresh attendants...immediately prior to shipping. Supplies are always less than demand so banking is a luxury most producers just don't have, and banked cages are a definite possibility for becoming contaminated.

    Also.......there are no proposals that I am aware of to open up the infested area and permitting the sale of bees from there, and I would be concerned if anything else were to be the case, though taking Sicily off the list in a year or two if nothing more is found might be in order.

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    Senior Member Greengage's Avatar
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    A chap was telling me about a report from Cornell university stateing they have discovered another beetle related to SHB which does not cause as much damage and defends its territory against Aethina tumida (Murray) anyone hear of this.
    How will Ireland be effected next year if we have a Brexit from Europe.In accordance with Article 3 of Council Directive 92/65/EEC European Union Member States must not prohibit or restrict for health reasons the international movement of bees once all requirements set down in EU legislation have been met. Direct imports of bees into Ireland from outside the EU are not permitted although imports from other EU Member States which fulfil the EU’s bee health certification requirements are permitted. Will we be importing bees from Britian or Northern Ireland, nobody told the bees the couldnt drift south.
    https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2015-11-19a.306
    Last edited by Greengage; 16-12-2015 at 02:25 PM. Reason: forgot to add link

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    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    I wonder if it makes anyone round here nervous that the Sunday name for the small hive beetle is Aethina tumida Murray?

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    Does the beetle know it's called Murray?

    Do they do anything special to deal with SHB in the parts of Africa where it came from, or isn't it a particularly common pest there?

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    I wonder if it makes anyone round here nervous that the Sunday name for the small hive beetle is Aethina tumida Murray?
    Lol Gavin. Might not be as off the wall a comment as you think. My first name comes from my mothers family name. They were all engineers etc, and scientists. The gentleman involved is thought to possibly be a (very) distant relative.

    Of more interest to you perhaps is that he was from a Perthshire family which had a main residence not more than a kilometre from a certain double FB occurrence this summer.

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    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    You're even better connected than I thought!

    I'm claiming Patrick Matthew as I have Errol/Grange Matthews in my ancestry back to the 1600s.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Matthew

  8. #8

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    I thought the Commercial beekeepers got their Queens from Australia C4u ? and the Penguins on a plane bees from Italy were a one off when the Gov gave a subsidy to replace commercial colonies lost when a bad Winter caught the beekeepers out


    Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    I thought the Commercial beekeepers got their Queens from Australia C4u ? and the Penguins on a plane bees from Italy were a one off when the Gov gave a subsidy to replace commercial colonies lost when a bad Winter caught the beekeepers out


    Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk
    Most of the package bees that come into the UK are from Italy, albeit in recent years not from the south. Puglia is the main producing area, some 400 + Km from the SHB, but the ones in the last three years have all been from Piemonte which is nearer Dover than it is to SHB.

    Many queen shipments come into the UK from Italy. Again most of ours are from Piemonte and a particularly good breeder in the mountains. by 'ours' I don't mean coming into this area, I source for a significant spread of UK buyers and the vast majority are to English based clients. Sicily was, until two years ago, a significant source of package bees, Calabria not. There was/is a significant queen breeder on the northern edge of the SHB area that supplied good bees, but like all of that area they have had to revert to honey production for income. The Italian authorities are being very straight in their dealings on this matter. Sicily and Calabria are not permitted to send bees outwith their boundaries, and even tighter rules are in play in the infest area and its environs.

    Not very many queens come in from Australia. I have done it only once and that was many years ago. Now only Western Australia is permitted, but they only have Italian type bees and they are not UK suited. New Zealand is a different matter, and some truly excellent carnica stock is available from there and has been imported in considerable quantity. A subsidised import of packages and queens from there (and it was lead by Scottish Enterprise and part funded by Perth and Kinross and Angus councils) took place in 2009. Even subsidised it was still not cheap. NZ product, with airfreight bills included is far dearer than from the EU. With subsidy it only brought the price down to a little below EU levels, but the big thing was the immaculate and proven health status.

    The more recent Scottish government aid was a part of a hard weather payment programme. Other farming sectors got such aid to a far greater extent than bee farming. Full submissions demonstrating the extent of hard weather linked losses had to be submitted, then a committee, of which no bee farmer was part, decided how to divide up the fixed available pot. In the end, on average, the bee farmers received about 20% of their loss back. This was NOT related to any subsidised bee purchases. In our case we used a large part of it to establish our queen and nuc producing unit, so in no way could you say it was subsiding imports. It was each bee farms decision as to what they did with the money. Some would not be here today without it, and as no one had any money after the hard seasons there would be abandoned apiaries around the country...in an EFB area too....not a good idea.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Beebase has a list of EU based queen imports

    http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/publi...portReport.cfm

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