Pest bees could cost millions in Australia

ABC.net.au

ELIZABETH JACKSON: A new report has found an incursion of Asian honey bees in Australia could cost millions of dollars if it spreads. The bees were first found in Cairns in Far North Queensland three years ago and so far they've been contained to that region.

Now a report by the Federal Government's Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation has put a figure on the price of exterminating the Asian honey bee colonies.

Melinda Howells reports from Brisbane.

MELINDA HOWELLS: Three years ago an unwanted cargo arrived undetected in Cairns. Asian honey bees are common in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. They're smaller and less hairy than European bees, with distinctive yellow stripes and they're a pest.

TERRY RYAN: It can't do the managed pollination. It robs the honey and destroys the hives of the domesticated bees so there are problems in honey production, pollination. And because it's warm so often and likes to live around what we call disturbed ground - our houses and buildings and post boxes - it can become a real pest

MELINDA HOWELLS: Terry Ryan has authored a report on the public costs of a widespread incursion, such as removing hives and treating stings.

TERRY RYAN: We're looking at numbers in the millions of dollars, you know, for every million people affected you're looking a range on the public health impacts of, you know, around the $800,000 mark. And the public nuisance costs can rise between $50,000 and $300,000 odd per million people.

MELINDA HOWELLS: Trevor Weatherhead is the president of the Queensland Beekeepers Association. He says a nationwide infestation would have an even greater cost to the honey and beeswax industries and to horticulture and agriculture.

TREVOR WEATHERHEAD: In Australia alone there's something like about $4 billion to $6 billion worth of crops that rely on honey bees for pollination. If they're not available to do that pollination job because these other Asian bees have displaced them, then there would be a big loss to agriculture

MELINDA HOWELLS: The insects can also carry a mite that could wipe out European bees, but the mite hasn't yet been detected in Australia.

Terry Ryan says Queensland authorities have so far managed to control the incursion.

TERRY RYAN: We don't know how far it'll go, but some of the scientists say it could get down as far as Victoria and even into South Australia. So we are talking in the millions of people.

MELINDA HOWELLS: A spokesman for Queensland's Department of Primary Industries says a cost-sharing agreement with other states and territories and the Commonwealth is in place until the end of the year. It's focused on surveillance, eradication and establishing the extent of the Asian honey bee infestation to determine whether the pests can be eradicated.


ELIZABETH JACKSON: Melinda Howells reporting from Brisbane.