FRANCE-HELP FOR THE MISSING HONEY BEES.
The world’s leading cosmetics manufacturer, L’Oréal Paris, has become the first corporation to help finance the fight to save Australia’s honeybee population, promising $50,000 towards protecting local bees from the Varroa Destructor mite.
According to Plant Health Australia, L’Oréal Paris’s decision to support research into honeybees and pollination in Australia followed their recent launch of a new hair care product containing bee-produced Royal Jelly.
Plant Health Australia says Australian honeybees are potentially under threat from Varroa Destructor, which has had negative impact on bee populations across the world.
Varroa Destructor has not been detected in Australia yet, but has been found as close as New Zealand and more recently in Papua New Guinea.
Plant Health Australia says that wherever it has gone, the Varroa has seriously affected honeybee populations.
Nearly 80pc of Australian horticultural crops, many vegetables and pasture seeds rely on honeybees for pollination.
The CSIRO is attempting to develop the world’s first biological control for Varroa.
Pollination Australia last week met to further discuss the problem, with PHA program manager, Dr Sophie Peterson, outlining a workshop to be run looking at a hypothetical incursion of Varroa mite.
This bee pest is covered by Animal Health Australia’s Emergency Animal Disease Response Agreement (EADRA).
The workshop will bring together key decision makers in a livestock emergency disease response and will provide the opportunity for the pollination industry to outline likely impacts on industry resulting from a Varroa incursion.
The workshop will also provide a forum for Pollination Industries to understand EADRA arrangements and the AUSVETPLAN Disease Strategy for a Varroa incursion.
