Tasmanian apiarists have a bee in their bonnets.
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A day after Jo Palmer, the Minister for Primary Industries and Water, beefed up biosecurity at Tasmanian airports to combat the threat of foot and mouth disease, apiarists are calling for more resources to combat bio-threats facing Australian bees.
Lindsay Bourke, president of the Tasmanian Beekeepers Association, said while livestock farmers were right to be worried about the presence of foot and mouth in Indonesia, apiarists are already dealing with an emergency in NSW that is threatening the bee industry and could damage agriculture dependent on bee pollination.
Varroa mites, which were discovered last month in hives near Newcastle, are sesame seed-sized parasites that can kill and weaken bee populations.
NSW biosecurity experts are trying to contain the outbreak by destroying millions of bees in the area.
"It is really threatening for us now because we've got this in NSW and the New Zealand connection and they are lousy with varroa now. So we are worried it will get here eventually," Mr Burke said.
The situation is critical because about a third of the food we consume is dependent on pollination by bees.
Mr Burke said although Tasmania's bee biosecurity inspectors were doing a "great job", there was a need for more resources, including installing additional sentinel hives and catchboxes near vulnerable points such as ports.
Catchboxes are empty hives that can lure in stowaway foreign bees, ensuring they can be easily located and destroyed.
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"They are important because they give the first alert when something is wrong - it's like the canary in the coalmine," he said.
Tasmania has deployed just four "smart" catchboxes, which are catchboxes equipped with remote monitoring technology, saving biosecurity staff from having to drive all over the state checking boxes each week.
Mr Burke said ports are vulnerable because foreign bees can hitch rides on the ships or in containers and set up infected colonies once they arrive.
"The main ports where cargo comes from overseas countries where they are dropping off machinery and cars - they are vulnerable. Foreign contaminated bees can stow away in containers and infect populations here," he said.
He said four smart catchboxes was not enough to even cover all of the state's vulnerable ports - Burnie, Devonport, Port Latta, Bell Bay and Hobart.
The outbreak at the Newcastle Port suggests a population of infected bees has stowed away on a ship. Australia has dealt with similar outbreaks before.
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