Subject: Your help needed to protect Hawai'i's honey bees

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 1995 00:40:00 GMT

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originally in conference LM-BEE-ListB on WILDBEES (WILD BEE'S BBS)
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Date:         Sat, 25 Feb 1995 08:58:53 -1000
From: Kevin Roddy <[email-masked]>
Subject:      Your help needed to protect Hawai'i's honey bees
To: Multiple recipients of list BEE-L <[email-masked]>

25 February 1995

>From the volcanic Island of Hawai'i to list members of Bee-L and other
beekeepers around the world, Aloha:

We in Hawai'i need your support in helping us maintain mite free and
disease free honey bees.  Please read the letter below that was composed
by one of the Island of Hawai'i's best known beekeepers, Walter Patton,
summarizing our problem and what has happened thus far.   This letter
also appeared in the February 1995 Issue of American Bee Journal.  We
*sincerely* need your help--comments, questions are most welcome at my
e-mail address, and I will forward to Walter, or you may fax him
directly.  (we're working on getting Walter on the Internet)

If you would like to fax Walter, please do.  Telephone calls from the US
Mainland to Hawai'i are competitive, and it is not prohibitive, like it
was in the past.  Direct-dialed rates average from 30 cents per minute for
the day rate to 15 cents per minute for the night rate, so faxing is more
economical than sending letters for 32 cents per letter.

Quickly, I am sure many of you know the problems that Hawai'i has faced
with unwanted, introduced diseases and species in the past.  On a human
scale, Native Hawaiians were decimated by disease to which they had no
resistance.  Only one full-blooded Hawaiian has survived for 19 others
that have died.  We are fighting what has been introduced intentionally
and unintentionally with limited success.  Our bees are free of mites and
other diseases that have decimated colonies in other places. We want to
keep it that way for us as well as you.  In the letter below there is a
proposal that Hawai'i be designated as a repository for genetic bee
stock. Because of our distance from the US mainland there is little fear
of Africanization problems, and fortunately, Varroa cannot swim!

As a brief aside, we are also in constant fear of the introduction of the
infamous brown tree snake of Guam, which has *killed all bird life on
Guam* and is the source of constant power failures there, as the snakes
shimmy up power poles, and are electrocuted.  There have been sightings
of this snake at airports only on the islands of Kaua'i and O'ahu, and
they were quickly dispatched.

Anyway, please help us any way that you can.  I have included fax numbers
to three Federal politicians in Washington.  Their hearing from
beekeepers across the United States that oppose this new rule will be
vital to our keeping Hawai'i 's honey bee stores clean from disease,
insuring clean queens to you until we can all eliminate Varroa and other
bee afflictions.

I am a university librarian by profession, and have already conducted an
extensive literature search on New Zealand honey bee diseases (through
the DIALOG database system) and collected well over 50 articles that
discuss honey bee diseases in New Zealand, which I have forwarded to
Agriculture Professors at the Univesity of Hawai'i, Hilo, and to members
of the Big Island Beekeeping Association.

A warmfelt thank you to all!!!

Kevin M. Roddy
[email-masked]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A PROPOSED RULE CHANGE OF THE HONEY BEE ACT OF 1922 TO ALLOW NEW ZEALAND
BEES INTO THE UNITED STATES.

This proposed rule, as published in the Federal Register (7/18/94 page
36773) is deceitful and misleading in the first paragraph summary where
the Animal and Health Inspection Service of the USDA states, "The
proposed actions appears warranted based on our determination that New
Zealand is free of diseases and parasites of honey bees."  This is a
lie.   As per "Honey Bee Pathology"  (Bailey and Ball, 1991) New Zealand
does have half moon syndrome, a mite Meiitiphis alvearius, Kashmir bee
virus, melanosis, chronic paralysis virus, and Malpighamoria mellificae.

This fraudulent statement was made to enlist the support of readers of
the proposed rule and now creates cause for concern regarding the
credibility and intentions of APHIS/USDA.  The proposed rule is not for
the benefit of US beekeepers; this is a political issue in the name of
free trade to facilitate the New Zealand beekeepers efforts to supply the
package and queen bee needs of Canada and possibly Korea.  Before the
1988 closure of Canadian borders to US bees, Canadians spent $12 million
annually purchasing over 300,000 packages of US bees per year.  A USDA
1993 legal opinion of the Honey Bee Act of 1922 prohibits the transiting
of New Zealand bees through Honolulu, O'ahu.
In a telephone conversation with Mark Winston, professor and bee
researcher at Simon Fraser University, Canada, the scientific and
biological soundness of keeping Hawai'i isolated as a protected gene bank
was agreed upon and Mark wondered if the New Zealand bees could be
transited through Los Angeles.  Next I called Gordon Waller, queen
breeder and researcher from Tucson, who is packing to move out of Arizona
and away from Africanized honey bee drones that are threatening his queen
bee program.  Mr. Waller also supported the idea of keeping Hawaii
isolated as a breeding sanctuary protected against any possible genetic
contamination of Africanized honey bees.   At Gordon Waller's suggestion,
I telephoned Dr. Eva Crane in the United Kingdom.  Dr. Crane, now
retired, has studied the spread of bee diseases and pests around the
world and said she would question and oppose any legislation to increase
the trafficking of bees around the world.  Dr. Crane then put me in touch
with Dr. Brenda Ball in England who took great issue with Dr. Shimanuki's
dismissal of Kashmir Bee Virus as having no economic significance and his
lack of concern about half moon syndrome because he was unable to
discover how the syndrome is spread through the hive.  Dr. Ball also
expressed concern about the lack of understanding about the compounding
effects of bee pests and diseases when multiple infestations occur in the
hive simultaneously.  Dr. Ball agreed that Hawai'i could play a VITAL
ROLE in the future of honey bees of the world if Hawai'i maintained a
strict isolation and is established as a "Repository" for US bees free of
mites and genetic contamination by AHB.

The proposed rule is not in the best interests of US beekeepers and
should be rescinded by the USDA.  Unbiased review and research directed
by a "peer review" group including members of the beekeeping industry
must be conducted to survey and assess the potential environmental impact
that any deviation from the intent of the Honey Bee Act of 1922 would
have on US beekeeping.

Act now, and call or write your US Senators and Congressmen (helpful
numbers are given below) and request that the Honey Bee Act of 1922 be
supported and that New Zealand bees not be allowed into the US.
Additionally, federal legislation is needed to support the efforts of
Hawai'i to act as a repository for the cleanest US honey bee gene bank as
a safeguard against the future spread of known bee diseases and pests and
the unknown effects of temperate New Zealand bee disease and pests on
honey bees in the tropical environment of Hawai'i.  Please *bee*
involved.  We might make a difference is enough of us speak out now.
this is not a done deal.  Handwritten letters are better than no
letters.  Write today.  if you need me to fax for you, I will be glad to
help.

Walter Patton
27-703 Kaieie Road
Papaikou, Hawai'i  96781
Ph/FAX:  808-964-5401

FAX FEDERAL LEGISLATORS!

US Senator Richard Lugar, likely Chairman US Senate Committee on Agriculture
FAX  202.228.0360

Congressman Pat Roberts, Chairman, Congressional Committee on Agriculture
FAX  202.225.5375

(Continued to next message)