Varroa Response Update

The total confirmed infected premises is now 156.  There has been one new IP in the west Lake Macquarie area and one in Sedgefield east of Singleton, these have been from DPI surveillance and confirmed through the laboratory. These were within the PURPLE zones and close to the edge of the existing RED zones. As a result it will extend the RED zone south and west of the Newcastle complex.

Operations continue to focus on first round surveillance of the PURPLE zones, which is on schedule, as reported last update and expected to reach completion end of May.  The cooperation of industry and the community is vital in helping the response achieve the goal of eradication.

Wild European Honeybee Baiting Program

The WEHB Program is well underway across several of the RED zones with a surge in staffing and deployment of over 600 feeder stations more recently, with an average of over 90% of these stations being successfully spiked. The stations are currently laid out across Central Coast, West Newcastle, Bulahdelah, Wards River, Wherrol Flat and Krambach and are at different stages of their feeding and spiking cycles.

Sentinel hives are also deployed in the Central Coast RED zone and have shown efficacy of the spiking of bait stations nearby, the data continues to be gathered in this region while baiting is currently ongoing.

Industry Briefing : Webinar

AHBIC coordinated with the NSW DPI to arrange an Industry Briefing via an online Webinar, which was held 11^th May 2023. The information presented provided a valuable update of the response details, the current activities and shared some of the data with industry, followed by a Q & A Session.

 You can revisit the webinar by watching the recording on our YouTube page:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eh1ddThvys

AHBIC continues to work directly with the Incident Management Team of the DPI Varroa mite Response and we encourage all AHBIC members, beekeepers and community members to keep up to date through points of truth via the NSW DPI website and through the regular AHBIC updates provided, including the most recent webinar.

You can reach out to AHBIC via:

CEO

Danny LeFeurve ahbic@honeybee.org.au

0409 699 980

Varroa Coordinator

Bianca Giggins bianca@honeybee.org.au

0402 467 780