Biosecurity Services to the Apiculture Industry

Honey bee exotic pest and disease surveillance & response

This ia a multi-faceted programme consisting of:

• Hive inspection and sampling
• Maintaining an apiary database
• Providing technical advice and training to beekeepers
• Screening of exotic bee pest and disease enquiries
• Reporting on activities and providing articles
• Biosecurity emergency response

Scope of apiary surveillance

Surveillance is conducted for the following exotic honey bee diseases, pests and undesirable genetic strains (henceforth collectively called bee disease/s):

• European foulbrood (Melissococcus plutonius)
• Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida)
• The parasitic fly (Braula coeca)
• Tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi)
• Asian mite (Tropilaelaps clareae)
• Asian mite (Tropilaelaps koenigerum)
• Varroa¹ species other than V. destructor
• African and Africanised honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata)
• Cape bee (Apis mellifera capensis)
• Apis species other than mellifera

1. Note:  Varroa destructor  is now well established in New Zealand so detecting other species of varroa such as Varroa jacobsoni and Varroa underwoodi, would be unlikely under the current surveillance model, unless associated with an incursion of an Asian species of honey bee.

Hive inspection and sampling

The hive inspection and sampling programme has three components:

• High-risk area inspection and sampling
• Sampling of adult bees from apiaries supplying bees for export
• Investigation of suspect exotic honey bee diseases

High-risk areas for bee diseases

Throughout New Zealand, 23 geographic areas, (13 in the North Island and 10 in the South Island) have been classified as being high-risk because they have the greatest potential for entry of exotic honey bee diseases. They include ports, airports, cities and tourist destinations. The target is to inspect and sample a total of 350 apiaries from the high-risk areas.

All hives in each apiary are:

• Inspected for signs of exotic bee disease, and any suspicious bees or larvae are taken for testing. Suspect life stages of Small Hive Beetle and Braula are also taken for lab diagnosis;
• Sampled by taking at least 80 bees from each hive and testing a percentage of them in the lab, (normally 14) for internal mites using the tracheal sectioning method;
• Tested for external mites using a 24-hour miticide and sticky board.

Export apiaries

Each beekeeper who supplies bees for export has to provide a sample of bees from up to 25 of the supply apiaries.  The bees are tested for external and internal mites with a target of 300 samples.

Providing technical advice and training to beekeepers

Technical advice is provided to government authorities as well as beekeepers. AsureQuality identifies and trains beekeepers to become warranted as Authorised Persons Level 2 so they can undertake surveillance and reposnse activities as needed.

Investigation of suspected exotic honey bee diseases

Each year MPI and AsureQuality receive a number of calls from beekeepers reporting suspected exotic bee diseases or unusual symptoms in hives. AsureQuality works with MPI's Investigation and Diagnostic Centre (IDC), Wallaceville, to screen these calls and determine whether sampling is justified. 

Reports and articles

AsureQuality, on behalf of MPI, provides articles on exotic bee diseases and reports on exotic surveillance activities in the ‘Surveillance’ and ‘The New Zealand Beekeeper’ magazines. Surveillance reports are used to help meet international reporting requirements of New Zealand’s bee health status, and for keeping New Zealand beekeepers informed of surveillance activities.

Biosecurity emergency response services

We provide trained staff and resources from within the company to deliver an apiculture response when an exotic bee disease is suspected. We also train and manage a large team of warranted beekeepers who take a leading role in delimiting surveys. We assist MPI in designing response procedures and systems.

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