Risk of disease from U.S. stings beekeeper optimism

Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun 

Risk of disease from U.S. stings beekeeper optimism

A honey bee packed with pollen lands on a bloom of a hibiscus flower. Winter losses of up to 40 per cent are hampering the commercial beekeeping industry in Canada.



Canadian beekeepers hoping for cheaper starter packages of honey bees from the United States have had their hopes dented, if not crushed.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has concluded in a new risk-assessment report that says Canada’s nearly $2 billion beekeeping industry remains exposed to four serious diseases from the U.S., including Africanized honey bees and medication-resistant pests.

The CFIA released late last week a new assessment to stakeholders, asking for comments. It conducted the report after commercial beekeepers in Manitoba and Alberta pressured the federal Conservative government to reconsider reopening the border after devastating winter losses that put the country’s pollination industry in peril.

Canada closed the continental border to U.S. packages in 1987 as a result of the outbreak of two different mites. It began allowing honey bee queens to be imported from the U.S. in 1993 but has banned starter packages, which contain upwards of 10,000 bees.

It continues to try to hold the line against a panoply of pests and diseases that could hurt Canada’s small but powerful honey industry. It allows package and queen imports from New Zealand, Chile and Australia, which it says does not have specific problems of Africanized bees, small hive beetle and medication-resistant mites and American Foulbrood, a virulent spore disease.

Canadian beekeepers imported 40,000 packages worth $2.5 million from those countries in 2012. The vast majority of the 198,000 queens imported in 2012 came from the U.S., primarily Hawaii.

In a comprehensive 71-page report CFIA says the risk of U.S. package bees carrying those four problems has not changed since an assessment in 2003, and that medication-resistant mites could seriously damage Canada’s beekeeping industry.

It points out the U.S. does little to inspect for or restrain the movement of honey bee diseases.

“Key risk factors considered in the assessment are the distribution and prevalence of honey bee diseases in the U.S., the extensive migratory beekeeping industry, the over-wintering of colonies in the southern part of the U.S., the lack of interstate movement controls, and the absence of a national honey bee management program,” the report’s authors said.

“There is still a high probability of introducing diseases and pests into Canada due to importation of honey bees from the continental United States. The risk assessment does not provide new scientific evidence to remove or decrease the current import control measures in place.”

The idea of reopening the border has been divisive among Canada’s 8,000 beekeepers, to say the least. The B.C., Ontario and Quebec industry associations — which largely represent small and medium-sized beekeepers — all argue the risk of more diseases is too great.

But commercial beekeepers, who own 83 per cent of the honey bee colonies in Canada, argue they cannot continue to sustain winter losses of upwards of 40 per cent without ready access to cheap U.S. bees. Packages from New Zealand typically cost about $150, double what American beekeepers charge.

Several commercial operators have already mounted a class-action lawsuit in Federal Court arguing the 1987 border closure was done without proper process. The case has yet to be heard.

The B.C. Honey Producers’ Association reaffirmed on Saturday its opposition to reopening the border. The Manitoba Beekeepers Association is still studying the report.



Blog: www.vancouversun.com/jefflee

