Bee killer parasite could wipe out Australian crops
Pastor Dale Morgan
Bee killer parasite could wipe out Australian crops*
By Jane Bunce
May 02, 2007 06:27pm
Article from: AAP
FRUIT and vegetable prices could skyrocket in the likely event that a
parasite decimating bee populations overseas reaches Australia, experts
warn.
Honey bees have a major role in pollinating Australian crops, including
apples, pears, apricots, pumpkins, almonds, avocados and cherries.
But countries, including the US, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, are
experiencing major crop losses as a mite kills off their commercial and
wild bees.
If the parasite reaches Australia it has been estimated up to 9500 jobs
and $877 million a year would be wiped off the horticultural industry,
while consumers would lose $839m from higher fruit and vegetable prices.
The prediction comes on top of existing fears that fruit and vegetable
prices will rise if the drought continues and the water supply for
irrigation in the Murray-Darling Basin runs out.
CSIRO entomology researcher Dr Denis Anderson, who gave the mite its
official scientific name Varroa destructor, said it had reached all
major bee-keeping countries except Australia over the past 50 years.
"The greatest threat to Australia is probably through swarms of bees on
boats – the boat arrives in Australia and the swarm carries the mite
in," he said.
"We do get swarms on boats here quite regularly.
"Even though you educate the boat owners and people on the wharves that
these swarms are a threat to us... it's pretty likely. The probability
of introduction, you would have to say it's high."
The mite sucks the blood of adult bees, but also infects young bees
still in their pupal stage.
It leaves the bees weakened so their life span is reduced from six weeks
down to one week, but also spreads diseases that kill the bees directly.
Overseas, the mite has reduced commercial colonies by about 25 per cent
and basically wiped out wild bee populations, Dr Anderson said.
Australia relied particularly heavily on wild bees to pollinate its
crops and so would be hit especially hard, he said.
The Centre of International Economics in a 2003 report estimated the
direct economic cost to Australia at $1.7 billion a year if there was a
complete loss of honeybee crop pollination.
The centre's senior economist Henry Cutler today said the estimates were
based on 1999-2000 data, "which means the expected loss could be greater
now considering the increase in value of those industries that rely on
honeybee pollination".
"What will happen is there will be a flow-on effect to consumers," Dr
Anderson said.
"You've had free pollination in the past and that hasn't been built into
the cost of products. After the mite arrives those growers will have to
pay (bee keepers) and double their pollination costs and that's got to
be paid for somewhere."
Dr Max Whitten, the retired chief of CSIRO entomology, said
representatives from the honeybee industry, horticultural and crop
industries, investment groups, governments and researchers met in
Canberra last month to discuss the problem.
The Government provided funds for the workshop on the recommendation of
a report tabled in February from a parliamentary inquiry into rural
skills, training and research.
Dr Whitten said the Government, which had recently sold off its only
national honeybee quarantine facilities, had to make sure breeders had
easy access to overseas bees that were more tolerant to the parasite
otherwise they may be smuggled in.
Funding for a cooperative research centre to better investigate the
problem was also needed, he said.
The centre may cost about $2m a year, he said, but it was a small price
to pay to ensure an industry worth $2bn.