Varroa Mite Eradication Response Update 3 - AHBIC

Posted to social media 27/06/2022 at 11.20am 

I have received a lot of questions around the Incident Management Team's decision to destroy the hives located near Dubbo. To add some context around that decision.

On Wednesday mite was detected in sentinel hive at the port. On Saturday a further detection was identified 9 km from the original detection (IP4). The new detection was in commercial hives.

The department has been swift to trace the hive movements related to the commercial operation. Tracing discovered that another load related to IP4 had been moved from a location that was very close to the IP4 out to the site near Dubbo only 2-3 weeks ago.

The decision to destroy the hives was based on the following facts:

- The Dubbo site has been classified as 'Dangerous Contact Premise' which triggers a predetermined response.

- There is an extremely high risk that the load could contain mites given the previous close proximity to IP4.

- Despite no mites being detected the risk of missing mites within the load is also extremely high.

The decision is based on risk and made by expert professionals in their field. I have full confidence the Incident Management Team is doing everything they can in this dynamic situation to ensure the eradication of this pest.

QBA will continue to keep members, clubs and key stakeholders informed of the evolving situation through our email communications system and social media channels.

We sincerely appreciate the efforts of our members, stakeholders and supporters of the QBA to recirculate priority messages via email and our social media accounts. If you're using Facebook, please click on the Facebook icon at the bottom of this post to follow the QBA and assist us in communicating key messages. 

Keep up the great work. 

Kind regards,

Jo Martin 

QBA State Secretary