NZ apiarists unsure if vanishing bees signal 'colony collapse'
By Suze Metherell in Taupo
June 23 (BusinessDesk) - The sudden and devastating demise of honey bee hives, known overseas as colony collapse
disorder, may threaten New Zealand's $5.1 billion apiculture industry, after thousands of colonies were lost over last
spring.
North Island beekeepers spanning the Coromandel, Great Barrier, Wairarapa and Taranaki suffered significant losses with
some reporting up to 95 percent of adult bees disappearing from hives. However, a lack of reporting to the Ministry for
Primary Industries or the Environmental Protection Agency meant there was no certainty about whether the sudden
collapses were linked, the New Zealand Apiculture Conference in Taupo heard.
The comments came during a panel session including Dr Oksana Borowik, a commercial beekeeper and geneticist, Don
Macleod, a pesticide consultant who works with the National Beekeepers' Association, and Dr Mark Goodwin, head of the
honey bees and pollination unit at Plant & Food Research.
Borowik was the first to report a sudden departure of bees at her Coromandel hives between August and December. Hives
were discovered with only 200 young worker bees, the queen and plenty of pollen and nectar for them to eat with few dead
bees found near the hive. The remaining bees were riddled with Nosema Apis and Nosema Ceranae pathogens, which attack
the honey bees' gut, as was a recently discovered pathogen, Lotmaria Passim, she said.
DNA testing by Gisborne-based dnature confirmed the presence of the pathogens.
None of the bees that left the hives had been collected, meaning little was known whether they carried pathogens, but
it's understood nosema rapidly ages the bees, meaning they can leave the hive earlier, and also affects their homing
abilities to return to the hive.
Speaking from the floor, a visiting US beekeeper told the conference the symptoms were very similar to the colony
collapse disorder experienced by beekeepers in the US. In 2008, after reports of disappearing adult bees, the US
Department of Agriculture's research unit surveyed 20 percent of the country's 2.44 million colonies. Surveyed
beekeepers reported a total loss of about 36 percent of their honey bee colonies, up about 14 percent from the previous
winter, according to the research on its website.
Colony collapse is the subject of international scientific debate, with the blame variously placed on climate change,
pesticides, over-crowding or pests. The recent spate of unexplained bee deaths comes after New Zealand's wild bee
colonies were effectively wiped out by the arrival of the varroa mite in 2000, which halved the country's pollination
workforce.
When the panel asked the 400-strong conference how many had experienced hive deaths with symptoms described by Borowik
and other Coromandel apiaries, roughly a quarter of the room raised their hands, but only one had actually reported the
case. Macleod said to date MPI had only recieved 12 reports of hive deaths, and the agency was not necessarily able to
help because of the uncertainty over the cause of death.
Goodwin said the government is now funding further investigation into the sudden deaths. He told the conference that
correlation does not equal causation and because there was so little data it would be dangerous to jump to conclusions.
Macleod said the baseline for average hive deaths in a typical season is unknown, and New Zealand beekeepers didn't have
a habit of talking about hive deaths.
Asian demand for manuka honey has seen the price for all New Zealand honey increase, amid a global honey shortage. Bees
produced $187 million of exported honey in the June 2014 year, up 8 percent by volume and almost 30 percent by value on
the previous year.
The number of registered beekeepers increased 12 percent in 2013/14 to 4,814, and is nearly back to pre-varroa levels.
Meanwhile, total hive numbers reached 500,000, an increase of 55,000 on the previous year. About 750 commercial
beekeepers accounted for more than 90 percent of those hives while hobby beekeepers, defined as owning 50 hives or
fewer, numbered 4,590. In July last year, there were just 800 members across the two bee industry groups.
Representatives of New Zealand's fragmented bee industry are seeking government support to reintroduce commodity levies
for honey and the creation of a single national body by April next year. The conference will consider industry
unification, which may see the National Beekeepers Association and the Federated Farmers Bee Industry Group become a
single body.
(BusinessDesk)