Concern over varroa funding

Farmers and beekeepers say they are worried the Government will "desert" beekeepers and look to farmers to help pay for controls on the spread of varroa mites.

"We are very worried about the long-term funding from government to manage this damaging pest," Federated Farmers' bee section chairman John Hartnell said.

If the Government was to "renege" on support for the bee industry and centralised management of varroa it was only a matter time before the rest of the South Island was overrun, he said.

The Government today announced it was bringing forward $500,000 from next year's budget to control movement of hives in the South Island.

Biosecurity Minister Jim Anderton said beekeepers had called for "robust varroa movement controls" in the South Island.

To provide this, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was spending cash budgeted for the 2009-2010 financial year.

Delaying the spread of varroa to the rest of the South Island will delay impacts on the pastoral, horticultural, and arable sectors and give them more time to prepare for varroa management, he said.

But Mr Anderton also warned the Government had asked MAF whether affected industries were willing to meet the costs of maintaining movement controls beyond June 2009.

"If there is support for industry-funded movement controls, MAF will work with industry groups on how to implement controls in the most cost-effective manner," he said.

Varroa was first found in south Auckland in 2000 and is now widespread in the North Island, but its spread into the South Island has so far only reached Marlborough, Nelson and Buller.

Left uncontrolled, varroa would cost the South Island between $200 million and $430 million over 32 years, according to MAF planners.

Other experts have estimated that a mite spread in the South Island could cost the farming sector more than $300 million over 30 years: up to $10m annually over three decades .

Such losses would result from reduced crop pollination and loss of pollination of clover which puts "free" nitrogen from the air into pastures.

Mr Hartnell said the advance on government funds was welcome, but the rest of Mr Anderton's statement was a worry.

"The implication that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will cease funding any varroa management past July 2009 is seen as the Government deserting the beekeeping industry," he said.

Government money was needed to maintain control measures until suitable management tools are available. Researchers at the state science company Hortresearch recently found a way to use a strain of the common insect fungus Metarhizium to treat beehives infected with varroa mites, creating the potential to develop an organic solution to varroa. Other scientists are breeding bees genetically-resistant to varroa.

Farmers and other growers needed to retain feral bees which provide cheap crop pollination but the government appeared set to walk away from managing its own mistake of letting the varroa mite into the country, said Mr Hartnell.

But other commentators have noted the most likely way the varroa mites entered New Zealand was on a queen bee smuggled into the country by a beekeeper trying to boost bloodlines in hives.

Varroa mites feed on the blood of adult honey bees and this enables other lethal viruses to attack the bees. Heavy infestations will kill bees.