Varroa Response Update

The total confirmed infected premises is now 160.  There have been additional IP’s in:

• The Branch
• Salamander Bay
• Toronto
• Mangrove Mountain

The Branch, Toronto and Mangrove Mountain IP’s are the result of intensive first round surveillance, which has been focused on tracing premises. There are still numerous premises surveyed in the past few weeks that have been cleared of any infestation.

These three detections were either within the RED zones or close to the edge of the RED and PURPLE zones. As a result there has been a small increase of the RED zone south of  Newcastle and an extension of the RED zone west of the Central Coast complex.

The Salamander Bay detection is the result of communication from a registered beekeeper not being captured in the DPI database, when the hive health was declining, thought to have been from wild European honey bee baiting occurring in the sector, the hive was tested and has since been euthanaised.

Operations continue to focus on finalising first round surveillance in the PURPLE zones and completing the difficult work of euthanasia in the RED zones. AHBIC and the industry thank the field crews for their ongoing commitment and work efforts thus far. The cooperation of industry and the community is vital in helping the response achieve the goal of eradication.

Wild European Honeybee Baiting Program

AHBIC visited some baiting teams within the last few weeks and was pleased to see the onboarding of new staff who, over the coming months, will be critical in supporting the WEHB Program to reach the goal of deployment throughout all sectors with stations being intensified in some areas.

The teams and stations are active across Central Coast, West Newcastle, Bulahdelah, Wards River, Wherrol Flat and Krambach and are at different stages of their feeding and spiking cycles.

Industry Briefing : Webinar

AHBIC is coordinating with the NSW DPI to arrange another Industry Briefing via Webinar.

Book your calendar for:

Tuesday 13^th June at 7pm

 

a link to register for the event will be released soon.

There will be a response update followed by a Q & A Session.

 

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