NSW authorities racing to stop the spread of the deadly varroa mite threatening the bee industry have discovered the parasite in three new locations and established another biosecurity zone.
A total of seven infested premises have been discovered through contact tracing, including the initial detection at sentinel hives near the Port of Newcastle last week.
NSW Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders said a new eradication zone had been set up at Bulahdelah on the NSW mid-north coast.
“This means a new 10-kilometres eradication zone, 25 kilometres for surveillance and an extended 50-kilometres biosecurity zone have been implemented, to rapidly shut down that new incursion and stop further spread,” he said.
“Critically, this case is directly linked to a previously identified property, which shows the prompt and efficient response by the Department of Primary Industries is working well.”
Mr Saunders said the expansion of the biosecurity zones was no cause for alarm.
The other two cases identified on Tuesday are located at Newcastle and at Seaham.
What’s expected to be hundreds more bee hives around the NSW city of Newcastle and town of Bulahdelah will be destroyed in coming days.
An emergency order remains in place prohibiting the movement of bees across NSW after the deadly varroa mite was found at hives near the Port of Newcastle last week.
A second detection was made 10 kilometres away in a commercial hive.
Ana Martin, who runs Amber Drop Honey on the mid-north coast, said she had about 40 hives in the eradication zone at Bulahdelah, which was distressing.
Ms Martin said it was not just the economic loss but the sadness of having to euthanise the bees.
“Between the drought, fires, floods and now varroa there seems to be a bit of bad luck for beekeepers lately,” she said.
Acting chief executive of the Australian Honey Bee Industry council Danny Le Feuvre said authorities were working to identify and destroy all of the hives within the 10-kilometre eradication zones.
Mr Le Feuvre said while Sunday’s emergency order was valid for six months and stopped people in NSW from moving their bees, he did not expect it to be in place that long.
“Even when that is lifted, hopefully within a week or two weeks, there will still be some restrictions in the Newcastle area,” he said.
The order affects about 270,000 hives across NSW.
“Whilst there’s a standstill, no one can move bees in the whole state, there are really big and significant fines in place, even jail time,” he said.
“We are coming up to almond season so we’re making sure we go hard early to try to establish the perimeter; make sure we have got it contained before we hit almond pollination.”
Hundreds of people are responding to the bee emergency at a state control centre, and on the ground as part of additional efforts to locate and surveil hives.
Urgent tests are underway to determine whether the mites found in NSW have deformed wing virus.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s expert on honeybee pathogens, John Roberts, said the mite and the virus often came together – and when they did, they were a dangerous duo.
The mites feed on the blood of adult and larval bees and over time can weaken and kill colonies.
If the mites have the virus they can pass it to bees while enjoying their blood meals.
Infected bees end up with deformed wings, abdomens and other problems.
“If it’s just the feeding damage, and not the virus damage as well, it’s much lower impact than in combination, when they are acting together,” Dr Roberts said.
“It will be important to keep monitoring [for the virus] at the same time as monitoring the mite, because it is as significant a threat as the mite.”
The Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute is doing the testing with support from the CSIRO.
-AAP
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