More than a year on since sentinel bees at Port of Newcastle were first detected with a Varroa mite infestation, the destructive small pest has been found on a Central West property, leading to the 23 hives being euthanised at Gumble, west of Molong.
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It is the first detection in the state's Central West and has been traced to a location in the Sydney Basin at Sackville North. The mite transfer occurred after a legal movement of hives in April when both the Sackville North and Gumble locations were in a Varroa-free blue zone.
It comes as the NSW government yesterday announced $31 million to support beekeepers, horticulture and cropping industries affected by the Varroa mite outbreak.
But the new detection affects more than just the site at Gumble with Manildra apiarist Michael Nonnenmacher (pictured on the cover with his six-year-old daughter Neci) now finding his hives in a surveillance zone.
Mr Nonnenmacher has 180 hives as part of his Duck Lodge Honey enterprise on his Welverdene East property and he has genuine concerns that he may lose lucrative contracts if he is unable to move his hives south to Leeton in the next fortnight to fulfil his almond pollination commitments.
"Once you can't fulfil a contract, it will go to another apiarist and you won't get it back," he said.
"Pollination is a big part of my business. I have pollination contracts for almonds down south, as well as for apples and cherries around Orange. With the Varroa mite detection at Gumble, my hives are now in a surveillance zone and I require a special permit to move my hives."
Mr Nonnenmacher also said that if hives do get euthanised, the reimbursement is a short-term solution.
"It's good there is a reimbursement, but it doesn't look at the long-term implications of losing your hives," he said.
"If your hives are euthanised, you can't just go out and replace all your bees. It takes a lot of time to source new bees and build your hive up again with long-term loss of income."
Recreational beekeeper Nicky Moss, Canobolas, said the detection in the Central West was a big scare for the industry and she was concerned that the ongoing uncertainty would place significant amounts of stress on commercial apiarists.
"How long will beekeepers handle the stress?" she said. "They have workers, trucks, forklifts - it's all top dollars. This is their business - this is all they do."
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NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) deputy incident controller Dr Shannon Mulholland said the Sackville North site moving from a purple surveillance zone to becoming a red eradication zone on July 4, due to good hive movement reporting, helped surveillance officers detect the infestation.
"With the detection of Varroa mite at the property at Gumble, we have found only one mite and we are confident we have detected the infestation at a very early stage," she said.
"That it is only one mite and the fact it was a recent legal movement gives us some confidence we can control this spread quickly. We are confident we have good containment in the Central West at the moment. But, this has resulted in an extension of red eradication zones and purple surveillance zones around that property.
Despite the Varroa mite incursion going into its 13th month, Dr Mulholland said the primary focus was still on eradication.
"The standard approach that we would apply to any biosecurity incursion response is if it's technically feasible to eradicate, that's always the primary goal because it removes the threat from Australia and we no longer have to deal with it," she said.
"If we can't achieve eradication, the fallback plan is containment and if that becomes no longer possible, the fallback plan is transitioned to management."
Meanwhile Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said the government was committed to supporting industry in their fight against Varroa mite, which would add an estimated $52m per year in apiary management expenses.
"The NSW Varroa mite response, led by DPI, is the biggest plant pest response ever undertaken in NSW and as we pass the one-year milestone we remain focused on the goal of eradicating the mite," Ms Moriarty said.
According to DPI figures, in the past year 2,148 people have spent an estimated 452,569 hours on the response across 990,400 hectares of eradication (red) zones. The DPI has fielded more than 10,000 calls, sampled 40,726 managed hives across NSW while beekeepers have sampled 91,626 hives throughout the state.
The Wild European Honey Bee Management Program has deployed 705 bait stations, 823 Fipronil applications, and has been monitoring samples of bees collected in emergency eradication zones for Varroa mite of which 725 have returned negative results. Already the government has already spent more than $33m to control outbreaks, including $13.7m in reimbursement to around 2,500 affected commercial and recreational beekeepers.
