A European honeybee provider said they’re collateral damage to a dust-up in the Canadian honey sector over replacement bees.
Ermanno De Chino, CEO of Melita Bees, a firm based on the Mediterranean island of Malta, said Italian and Maltese bee biosecurity and quality are the subject of unwarranted “smears” coming from a Canadian beekeeping contingent. He said they’re “pushing for the opening of the border with the United States,” a country he said is extremely vulnerable to the tropilaelaps (tropi) mite threat.
“There’s little science and a lot of politics in all of this,” he wrote in a Feb. 10 email.
In a separate email, De Chino described the risk of tropilaelaps entering the U.S. as “very high” due to the “enormous” number of cargo ships from Asia arriving at the ports of California, Texas, and Florida: three states with tropi mite-friendly weather conditions.
“Swarms of Asian bees arriving in containers would have an easy time establishing themselves in these areas. The enormous concentration of hives in California’s Green Valley, dedicated to almond pollination, would make their spread almost immediate.”
De Chino said Italy and Malta’s biosecurity efforts are being “undermined” by the “political games” of a handful of Canadian beekeeping industry players — including the Canadian Beekeepers Federation (CBF) — wishing to re-open the border to U.S. bee “packages” (two or three pounds of bees with a mated queen).
“This comes after the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), the only body with the authority to establish biosecurity criteria, reiterated that bees from Italy and Malta meet Canadian requirements,” he said.
“The CFIA is in constant contact with European authorities, who are gradually increasing their level of surveillance.”An example is the ongoing development of a molecular testing protocol De Chino said will allow countries to certify bees sourced from tropilaelaps-free apiaries.
The initiative is a collaboration with United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Reference Center for Beekeeping, Bee Health, and Biosecurity.
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