The Asian Bee Incursion: Current Status

by Dr Max Whitten
The Wheen Foundation
November 2011

Aussie Bee Homepage > Asian Honeybee Crisis > Status of Incursion

The Asian honey bee (AHB) was first detected in Cairns, Queensland in May 2007.  The Queensland Government immediately commenced an eradication program.  The aim of the program was to delimit the incursion and contain it within a 50 km radius of Cairns by detecting and destroying all nests and swarms.

In April 2010, the National Management Group agreed to national cost shared funding for the Asian honey bee eradication, backdating the funding to 1 July 2009, under the provisions of Australia’s formal emergency pest response arrangements.  The program was nationally funded between 1 July 2009 and 31 March 2011. 

In January 2011 the National AHB Management Group decided that eradication was not technically feasible. At the time, this view was not widely shared by beekeepers, CSIRO and other bee researchers.  These dissenters have maintained that there is no credible evidence to support the view that the AHB will inevitably spread, and that efforts to eradicate the pest should continue.

Subsequently, the beekeeping industry mounted a public campaign to encourage the Government to review its position on eradication (www.securefoodsavebees.com).  A Senate Inquiry was established in April 2011 to evaluate the scientific basis for eradicability or not of the AHB.  It concluded that there was no convincing evidence to support the ‘ineradicability’ of the AHB. The Inquiry recommended that efforts to continue eradication should recommence and be increased.

In the meanwhile, the beekeeping industry decided to arrange for volunteer beekeepers to travel to Cairns and assist the ground staff of Queensland DPI continue the task of detecting and destroying colonies of the AHB.  So far this season (July -  November 2011) over 60 beekeepers, at their own expense, have spent 1-2 weeks in Cairns assisting in these efforts.   All indications are that the AHB remains confined to the general Cairns district and has not spread further south or across northern Australia.

In November, the Commonwealth Government reaffirmed its view that the AHB can no longer be eradicated.  It released a plan called “Transition to Management” (see: asianhoneybee.net.au).  This plan (T2M) identifies actions to transition from a state of AHB eradication to a program of management, acknowledging that the bee will continue to spread and become widespread within urban and rural areas of Australia where the environment favours its survival.

The Australian Government is investing $2 million from July 2011 to June 2013 to progress a transition from eradication of AHB into management of the pest as it becomes more widely established in Australia.  It will do this in partnership with Biosecurity Queensland (contributing $600,000) and the beekeeping industry (contributing $400,000 plus volunteer effort). 

A management committee will provide oversight of all AHB transition activities to ensure appropriate complementary integration of activities as transition progresses.  The Management Committee will be assisted by a Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) who will provide advice on implementing the T2M plan.

While the above might suggest the inevitability of the spread of AHB across much of Australia with serious impacts on biodiversity, public amenity and pollination services, this is not necessarily the case.   The T2M plan allows for considerable investment in improved detection techniques (eg use of selective attractants such as extracts from certain orchid species) and colony elimination strategies (eg bait stations). During the course of such work, if it becomes apparent that the number of AHB colonies is in fact decreasing, then the question of mounting another eradication campaign could be revisited.  The Government stresses that the evidence will need to overwhelming for serious consideration of a reversion to an eradication campaign.

It would seem more luck, then sound management, that the AHB remains confined to the general area around Cairns - despite the opportunity to spread over the past four years. One possible explanation for this situation is that the tropical rainforest, rather than acting as a food resource and suitable habitat for the AHB, is serving as a barrier to the spread of the pest.  The AHB enters but eventually retreats from the rainforest because of a lack of food.

In all probability, the 2012 field season will be the critical period in our efforts to eliminate the AHB from Australia.  Convincing evidence either way should become available. And then we’ll know if eradication is really feasible; or whether this pest is here to stay and that making arrangements to live with this unwanted immigrant becomes inevitable.

Max Whitten, Chairman, The Wheen Bee Foundation.

 

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Useful links:

http://asianhoneybee.net.au/ [This new website will provide key updates on efforts to manage the AHB]

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/4790_13530.htm

http://www.securefoodsavebees.com/

http://www.wheenfoundation.org.au/

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