Apiarist Disputes Seizure Of Honey Worth £25,000

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30211, 16 August 1963, Page 14

Apiarist Disputes Seizure Of Honey Worth £25,000

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 15. The hearing of an application by Trevor James Holt, an apiarist, of Ngongotaha, near Rotorua, to have a Health Department seizure order on £25,000 worth of honey marketed by his company, Springfield Apiaries, Ltd., put aside and the honey restored began in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland today. The Health Department alleges the honey is poisoned.

Mr L. G- H. Sinclair, S.M.. adjourned the hearing sine die for the details of the toxin-testing procedure used by tile Department of Agriculture. on behalf of the Health Department, to be made available to the apiary, which is applying to have the seizure disallowed. The matter was serious and could have far-reaching effects, said Mr C. M. Nicholson, counsel for the Health Department. “If the seizure is allowed, it means injury to an individual beekeeper,” he said. “If it is disallowed, it may mean possible danger to the public health from the release and consumption of the honey.” He said the Health Department issued seizure notices in respect of all the honey marketed by Holt, on July 24.

Mr Nicholson said the seizure arose from the illness of a boy at Ngatea on June 26. It was investigated by the Health Department which found that the boy had eaten Deluxa brand honey packed by Springfield Apiaries. Ltd., for Bond and Bond, Ltd.

Bacteriological tests on samples of the honey eaten by the boy were made at Waikato Hospital and proved negative. The samples were sent to the research station at Wallaceville and a report was received that the honey was highly toxic. It contained poisonous honeydew from tutu. Reaction On Animals

On July 17 three pots of each brand were taken by officers of the department from a warehouse in Auckland and sent to Wallaceville for testing. All the guinea pigs given the honey showed symptoms of poisoning. Further samples were taken from the bulk store in Te Rapa and two caused reactions in guinea pigs. As a result the department instructed its inspetcors to seize all Deluxa and Springfield honey. A good deal of testing had been done on Holt’s homey, said Mr Nicholson, but not all, in fact, of the particular four tons seized on the premises of his agent at Onehunga. with which the court was

concerned, had been tested. But the only conclusion that could be drawn was that all the honey must be treated with caution.

A complicating factor was that there was no simple chemical test to decide whether the honey was toxic or not.

Douglas Allenby Briscoe, apiary instructor for the Bay of Plenty, said he sent samples of Holt's ( bulk supplies from other apiarists to Wallaceville. He was later advised that all 11 samples of supplies drawn from Hamilton, Te Kuiti, Tirau, Rotorua. Taupo, Matamaita, and New Plymouth were highly toxic. Toxicity Factors Trevor Palmer-Jones, principal scientific officer at Wallaceville, said he was the author of papers on the subject of toxicity which had been published in scientific journals. He started inquiries into honey poisoning in , 1944 and found that among animals, rats and guinea pigs Were affected by the toxin. Because guinea pigs showed a more pronounced effect they were chosen for testing. He concluded that if toxic honey affected guinea pigs, it was likely to have a greater effect on humans.

The toxin, called mellitoxin, belonged to the picrotoxin group. Bees collected honeydew from the tutu tree. The honeydew was the excreta of an insect called the passion vine hopper which fed on the sap of the tutu tree which contained the toxin.

There was no simple chemical test to decide whether honey was toxic. He carried out tests on the honey from Ngatea and the guinea pigs showed typical symptoms associated with honey poisoning tremors, convulsions and stomach distension. “I considered it dangerous to humans,” said Palmer-Jones. He conducted tests on the six cartons of honey from Auckland. Samples produced characteristic symptoms of honey poisoning in guinea pigs. Two of the cartons of

honey, dated 1962 and 1953, from Te Rapa, caused guinea pigs to die The 1931 sample had no effect. Eleven samples sent from Rotorua all affected or killed guinea pigs.

Departments’ Decision Cross-examined by Mr J. E. Dillon, for Holt. PalmerJones said the decision not to make fuller details of the test carried out on the honey was a joint decision of the Health and Agriculture Departments. If the honey was toxic to guinea pigs, it was potentially toxic to humans, he said. Mr Dillon: What would you say if I said that the honey has had no effect on humans? Our witnesses are still alive. Palmer-Jones: I am glad. You realise that your decisions are of importance to Holt, the industry and the country?—Yes. Have you discussed with any doctor the possibility that honey poisoning could be an allergy?—No, but it would be highly unlikely that you would get 18 persons, all unrelated, as at Pongakawa in 1945, having the same allergy. The aspect of whether the 1945 case was food poisoning was looked into by theHealth Department, said Palmer-Jones. The Magistrate said after further discussion of testing procedures that detailed results should have been made available to Hollt, who was entitled to challenge the tests.