Australia is locking down its honey bees as it applies the lessons learnt from implementing one of the world’s most restrictive Covid-19 regimes to block another threat — a parasite that is wiping out hives around the world.
Australia is the only region in the world to have contained the varroa mite, which has been the scourge of bee populations around the globe. That has benefited its honey and pollination industry as Australia’s strict biohazard laws, which include the seizure of fruit, animal skins and soil-ridden shoes at international airports, have protected its insect population.
Yet the discovery of the most destructive variant of the varroa parasite at the Port of Newcastle and a nearby commercial colony has resulted in an immediate lockdown of bees in the state of New South Wales, which accounts for almost half of Australia’s commercial bee industry.
An exclusion zone has been set up around the city, with hundreds of hives due to be destroyed in the coming days in an attempt to eradicate the parasite.
Trevor Monson, a honey producer and pollinator in Gol Gol on the southern state border, said that the move to lock down the entire bee population was reminiscent of the country’s approach to coronavirus, which reflected the severity of the threat.
“It doesn’t look good. It appears the mite has been here for some time,” he said, estimating that the parasite could have been in the country for three months based on what had been found in Newcastle.
The state government revealed on Tuesday that hives at three new properties had been infested. One was located in Bulahdelah, which is 100km to the north of Newcastle.
Tobias Smith, a researcher at the University of Queensland’s School of Biological Sciences, said that the lessons of the pandemic strategy had been adopted to protect the country’s honey bees. “This is a lockdown of beekeepers and a freeze on their economic activity,” he said. “The community is now more understanding of the need for sudden and dramatic action.”
Apiarists were warned over the weekend not to move hives or touch their bees as government and industry bodies rushed to determine how far the varroa destructor, as the mite is known, had spread. A set of hives that were transported across the state by the affected farmer has also been destroyed.
The impact of the lockdown goes far beyond the country’s A$70mn (US$50mn) bee industry. Hives are essential to a number of crops including almonds, a A$1bn sector that is reliant on a quarter of a million hives that are transported around Australia, and for which the season is set to begin in the coming weeks.
A prolonged lockdown could also threaten other critical harvests including macadamia nuts, blueberries, cherries and avocados. Australia’s horticultural sector is already contending with bushfires, floods and a mouse plague while globally, rising energy prices and Russia’s war in Ukraine have raised concerns about food security.
The pandemic also triggered labour shortages and supply chain issues in Australia, driving up inflation.
Beekeepers told the Financial Times that the agricultural industry had been thrown into turmoil in the past two days. Farmers described frantic “behind the scenes” discussions about how to prepare for a worst-case scenario to maintain access to the insects to pollinate their crops.
The spread of varroa destructor has been blamed in part for a sharp reduction in the number of honey bee colonies outside Australia as it has spread from Asia to Europe, North and South America and New Zealand.
The red mite, around 1.5mm long, feeds on the body fat of its host, causing death or deformation. It is also responsible for spreading viruses that could have a knock-on effect for Australia’s indigenous stingless bee population.
Monson, a third-generation beekeeper who has worked in the industry for 60 years, remained confident that the spread of the parasite had been contained, but said the sudden appearance of the varroa mite on Australia’s shores had thrown the sector into disarray.
“I turned 75 a couple of weeks ago and was due to retire but those plans have been disrupted,” he said.
