Honey bees will be better protected from a deadly parasite under a multi-million dollar rescue package.
At least $31 million (US $20.7 million) will be injected into support for beekeepers, horticulture and cropping industries affected by the outbreak of varroa mite, more than a year after it was detected in Australia.
“Biosecurity, full stop, and pests are the number one issue that we have to deal with,” New South Wales (NSW) Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty told a farmers’ conference in Sydney on Wednesday.
The state government has paid almost $14 million in compensation to 2,500 commercial and recreational beekeepers since varroa was detected at the port of Newcastle in June 2022.
More than 14,000 hives were destroyed in the first four months of the outbreak as authorities tried to halt the spread of the parasite, which feeds on both adult bees and their larvae.
Australia will be the first country to eliminate varroa mites if the eradication program goes to plan.
“The response is on track,” Danny Le Feuvre from the Honey Bee Council told AAP.
But the efforts were dealt another blow last week when the mite was found near Molong, in central western NSW, hundreds of kilometres from where it was first discovered.
The detection was linked to the legal movement of hives from the northern outskirts of Sydney that have since been subjected to a destruction order.
Restrictions on the movement of beehives are still in place throughout NSW as well as interstate.
Authorities will meet at the end of July to discuss whether eradication is still achievable after the recent Molong detection.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions with Molong,” Mr. Le Feuvre said.
NSW Farmers said the extra funding highlighted the need to prevent biosecurity incursions.
“Once pests or weeds or diseases reach our shores, it requires an enormous amount of time and effort to tackle the problem,” NSW Farmers biosecurity chair Ian McColl said.
Meanwhile, another $38 million in state and federal funding has been set aside to help farmers transition to a national sheep and goat electronic identification system.
The tags will be mandatory from 2027 for all sheep and goats across Australia.
But a NSW Farmers spokesperson said it was not enough money to make the changes and would not help pay for the tags themselves, which cost about $2 per animal.
