Bee disease confirmed in Canterbury

Press, 17 December 1985, Page 3

Bee disease confirmed in Canterbury

By DERRICK ROONEY An outbreak of the bee disease, chalkbrood, previously thought to be confined to the area north of Rotorua, has been confirmed in Canterbury, a Ministry of Agriculture official revealed yesterday.. As a result, the thriving export trade in queen bees with Fiji has been suspended. The outbreak will cause what the apiary advisory officer in Christchurch, Mr John Smith, describes as a hiccup in the growing Canterbury export trade in queen bees, but is not expected to have any great impact on exports in the long term. Chalkbrood attacks bees at the larval stage, killing and mummifying them in their cells. The disease occurs in all the honey-provid-ing countries of the world except Australia and Fiji. “No country other than Australia and Fiji demands freedom from chalkbrood as a condition of import,” Mr Smith said.

Trade in queen bees with Australia is confined by Australia’s costly quarantine system to a few highpriced breeder queens, but Fiji is a big customer for Canterbury breeders. Mr Smith said the Ministry had not yet received the Fijian Government’s 3nse to the news of the eak, but he was confident that the trade would resume within a few months.

Honey exports are unlikely to be affected, because the main importers of New Zealand honey are Japan and Europe, where the disease is already estab-

fished. Chalkbrood rarely kills a hive, blit can destroy up to 10 per cent of the larva and cause some loss of production. According to Mr Smith, it is of minor economic importance, but is "another of the things we could do without.”

The Canterbury outbreak is at present confined to a radius of about 50km of Hanmer Springs, where there are about 5000 hives. But Mr Smith says it is “not containable,” and it is only a matter of time before it spreads to the rest of the province. The source of the infection is not known, but Mr Smith agreed that the most likely vectors were hives which had been to the North Island for kiwifruit pollination. The spores of the disease might also have been transmitted in honey from the North Island. “The outbreak shows how vulnerable New Zealand is to introduced diseases,” Mr Smith said. “There are several much more economically damaging diseases sitting throughout the world just waiting to be brought here.”

New Zealand imposed a total ban on honey imports, but few members of the public were aware of this, he said.

“The Agriculture Quarantine Service seizes up to 200 jars of honey a month. Any one of those, thrown on a rubbish heap, could spark major problems.” The outbreak of chalkbrood is not likely to threaten the newly established leafcutter bee.

Background report, page 13.