AUS….Given up on Varroa Removal

[Goran]

Someone sure has a hate campaign against OA.
I think it would be best for the Australian bee industry to raise the money to get generic OA through the registration process before big Pharma do it. It would potentially save them millions

I don't think is at all hate campaign. It seems to me opportunity to earn big bucks fast and unscrupulous.. and such later preach about god, faith, honesty, modesty, rightness, sacrifice, etc.. On OA they cannot milk money from beekeepers..
Over here more and more are turning to OA,FA, LA, thymol.. due to fast building of resistance of varroa on " healthy" chemicals like Flumethrin, Coumaphos.. which sell big companies.. Not to forgot to mention huge difference in price..

 

[fian]

I think it is more of a production issue than a chemical prohibition issue and let me explain. Without varroa, there is no need for treatment, technical stoppage or interventions that retain the breeding nest and delay the start of the flow. More flow window means more honey production. Australia, along with New Zealand, may be the countries with the highest honey production and where the sector is more professionalized and oligopolized.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Eh?!

 

[ericbeaumont]

delay the start of the flow

How would you go about doing that?

 

[fian]

How would you go about doing that?

It is not that the natural onset of nectar is delayed, but rather that it is not stored in the growth to end up as honey but is dedicated to increasing the population as food for the brood.
The reason is that chemical treatments against varroa are more effective in the absence of breeding and there are numerous ways to cause this absence. This delays the point of surplus (when there are a number of foragers capable of storing the surplus nectar on the rise)

 

[Antipodes]

Does anyone know if varroa destructor has been eradicated once it has been found? I don't mean a country, but perhaps an island or region within a country perhaps?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Does anyone know if varroa destructor has been eradicated once it has been found? I don't mean a country, but perhaps an island or region within a country perhaps?

In the minds of quite a few leaveitalone beekeepers over here maybe

 

[JamezF]

Does anyone know if varroa destructor has been eradicated once it has been found? I don't mean a country, but perhaps an island or region within a country perhaps?

The only example I can think of where that might have happened was when varroa was deliberately released on an island specifically to eradicate an invading subspecies of Apis mellifera.

James

 

[Antipodes]

I think Tasmania might be the last reasonable sized beekeeping island (we are about the size of the Republic of Ireland) in the world not known to have varroa? We are required to check each colony/hive twice a year for it, and make a record that we have done so. Given that the first egg the mite lays on arrival in a colony is a male and subsequent eggs female, and given experiences elsewhere in the world, do you think that the finding of a mite would be purely academic?
Certainly keep the ban on queen and bee imports however...

 

[Sutty]

I think Tasmania might be the last reasonable sized beekeeping island (we are about the size of the Republic of Ireland) in the world not known to have varroa? We are required to check each colony/hive twice a year for it, and make a record that we have done so. Given that the first egg the mite lays on arrival in a colony is a male and subsequent eggs female, and given experiences elsewhere in the world, do you think that the finding of a mite would be purely academic?
Certainly keep the ban on queen and bee imports however...

Sadly by the time you find a mite I suspect they will be well established in that colony

 

[fian]

I think Tasmania might be the last reasonable sized beekeeping island (we are about the size of the Republic of Ireland) in the world not known to have varroa? We are required to check each colony/hive twice a year for it, and make a record that we have done so. Given that the first egg the mite lays on arrival in a colony is a male and subsequent eggs female, and given experiences elsewhere in the world, do you think that the finding of a mite would be purely academic?
Certainly keep the ban on queen and bee imports however...

Does the review process include any capture method or product that causes an increase in the theoretical decline of varroa?

 

[Antipodes]

Does the review process include any capture method or product that causes an increase in the theoretical decline of varroa?

The sentinel hives would likely have a miticide in them and a sticky mat to hold and display dead mites.
Beekeepers can alcohol wash, sugar shake or drone uncap to satisfy the requirement to check for mites.

 

[rolande]

The only example I can think of where that might have happened was when varroa was deliberately released on an island specifically to eradicate an invading subspecies of Apis mellifera.

James

Hypothetical or actual? If it happened I'd be interested in further details, especially with regard to whether it succeeded.

 

[JamezF]

Hypothetical or actual? If it happened I'd be interested in further details, especially with regard to whether it succeeded.

Actual. Took place on Santa Cruz Island and is believed to have succeeded. David Evans wrote a piece about it last year and linked to some relevant papers.

James

 

[nemphlar]

Someone sure has a hate campaign against OA.
I think it would be best for the Australian bee industry to raise the money to get generic OA through the registration process before big Pharma do it. It would potentially save them millions

It's far too cheap for anyone to make money on it

 

[rolande]

Actual. Took place on Santa Cruz Island and is believed to have succeeded. David Evans wrote a piece about it last year and linked to some relevant papers.

James

An interesting article. I wonder if the use of varroa would have worked without first reducing the overall population and/or gene pool?

 

[JamezF]

An interesting article. I wonder if the use of varroa would have worked without first reducing the overall population and/or gene pool?

Given what we know about the survival rate of feral colonies, I'd not be surprised if it would have worked. From what I've read (and I've certainly not studied it in detail) there's no obvious reason to believe that the original colonies might have had any pre-existing varroa-resistant or varroa-tolerant traits and given how fast the remaining colonies died out after the introduction of varroa I wouldn't have thought there'd be time for any to develop.

James

 

[rolande]

Given what we know about the survival rate of feral colonies, I'd not be surprised if it would have worked. From what I've read (and I've certainly not studied it in detail) there's no obvious reason to believe that the original colonies might have had any pre-existing varroa-resistant or varroa-tolerant traits and given how fast the remaining colonies died out after the introduction of varroa I wouldn't have thought there'd be time for any to develop.

James

I wasn't really thinking about pre-existing varroa resistance, there's actually an argument that such a thing doesn't exist, that any resistance is the result of other genes being coopted for use against the mites. What I was thinking of was the polyandry experiment that was carried out when Keith Delaplane was at the NBU and it's positive results regarding colony survival, he mentions it in a couple of his YouTube talks and also in the Bob Binnie interview he did.

 

[Newbeeneil]

It's far too cheap for anyone to make money on it

You misunderstand, it’s not about them making money it’s about stopping big Pharma from making money.
If the industry got approval for generic OA they would not be putting profits into large corporations in the future.
If I did a 3 vape treatment on a hive it would cost me approx £3 with Apibioxal, with OA it is less than 10p. That’s one hell of a lot of money if you have 1000 hives.

 

[Erichalfbee]

It's far too cheap for anyone to make money on it

I don’t know. Is Apibioxal a loss leader?