Requirements for the importation of queen bees into Tasmania have been changed. The main change, queen bees and escorts need to be inspected for small hive beetle by a government officer on arrival in Tasmania. For bees coming by post this will be done in Australia Post mail centres. Packages containing live bees will be held and opened for quarantine officers to inspect. If no evidence of small hive beetles is detected the package will be resealed and continue through the postal system. Packages containing queen bees should be addressed to the receiving beekeeper as normal but must be identified as containing live bees. The live bee sticker that queen bee breeders have been using for a number of years is sufficient to meet this identification requirement. Any bees coming into Tasmania other than by post must be presented to a quarantine officer on arrival in Tasmania. Other conditions include: •the apiary of origin must have an active surveillance and management plan in place for small hive beetles, •the queen bees and escorts must be hand caught, inspected and found free of small hive beetle prior to placing in queen cages, •queen cages must be new and have mesh with holes less than 2 mm x 2mm, or slots longer than 2 mm must be less than 1mm wide, •external packaging must carry a statement on contrasting background indicating the package contains live bees. Even though the bees will be inspected by quarantine staff, the relieving bee keeper must still inspect the bees before placing them in a hive and notify the DPIPWE if they detect any small hive beetle. The certificate to accompany the queen bees has changed and the new certificate along with the full version of the importation requirements is available on the DPIPWE web site. For any enquiries please contact Karla Williams on (03)62339418 or email [email protected].
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 22:49:55 +0000
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