Monday, 31 August 2009
By Stefan Moore
Denis Anderson in Papua New Guinea on his mission to save they honeybee.
Image: Honeybee Blues
The honeybee is the single most important insect on our planet. Without honeybees pollinating our crops, at least a third of our food supply would perish. But today, a devastating parasitic mite has wiped out most of the world's wild honeybees and decimated managed hives everywhere. So far, only one continent on the planet remains free from this lethal epidemic - Australia.
Honeybee Blues is a one-hour documentary for SBS Television that takes us on an astonishing journey from the microscopic world of the honeybee to the global race to save them from annihilation. At the centre of the drama is the European honeybee, or Apis mellifera, that is the primary bee species used for commercial honey production and pollination around the world. As the film reveals, the honeybee faces the combined scourges of habitat loss, pesticides and the stresses of industrial agriculture, but her No. 1 enemy is a tiny parasitic mite called Varroa destructor that is killing honeybees across the planet. The evolutionary battle for survival between the honeybee and the varroa mite takes us from the Australian bush to America's vast industrial farmlands to the remote villages of Papua New Guinea.
At the centre of the film is the CSIRO's world leading bee pathologist, Denis Anderson, who was the first to identify and name Varroa destructor. As Dr Anderson explains, the mite had jumped species from an Asian honeybee where it lived harmlessly for millions of years to a European honeybee that had no natural resistance to the invader.
Despite Australia's bio-security efforts, Dr Anderson believes the arrival of Varroa destructor is imminent and we have to prepare. When the mite arrived in New Zealand in 2000, most of the wild European honeybees immediately disappeared and half the country's commercial hives were wiped out.
Currently, the only defenses we have are chemical treatments that the mites eventually develop resistant to, but this is a toxic treadmill that Dr Anderson would like to stop. He believes the ultimate answer lies in the genes of the honeybee. He wants to identify the gene in the developing larva that sends the chemical signal that tells the mite it is the right time to reproduce. Then he wants to switch it off. If he is successful, it may help save the European honeybee from annihilation.
This crucial research, however, is being stymied by a lack of funding. Recently, the Federal Government knocked back a request by a special parliamentary committee for $50 million for bio-security measures, research, education and training to protect Australia's honeybee and pollination industries. Only a small amount of funding ($150,000 a year for the next two years) has been provided for existing bio-security measures.
As for the research, education and training that is so desperately needed, the Government expects agricultural industries to contribute funds through a newly created alliance between the honeybee and pollination industries called Pollination Australia. So far, $357,000 has been committed but, according to Dr Anderson this falls far short of what is required. The nascent organization, he says, would greatly benefit from Government seed funding as it will take at least five years to educate agricultural industries about the critical value of honeybee pollination.
In the meantime, Dr Anderson believes that time is running out. Developing a varroa resistant bee needs to be going on now, not after the mite arrives on our shores.
In addition to the threat of Varroa destructor, Honeybee Blues reveals a new peril just off our shores. The film follows Dr Anderson to Papua New Guinea where he discovers a dangerous new mite, called Varroa jacobsoni. The finding is of vital significance to Australia. In 2007 an incursion of Asian honeybees was found in far north Queensland that could potentially carry this new lethal mite. So far 43 hives of Asian bees have been found around Cairns.
The Asian honeybee incursion is also jeopardising Australia's live bee exports. For the past few years Australia has been exporting European honeybees to the United States to replenish their hives that have been decimated by Varroa destructor. In the documentary, tensions rise when the US finds out about the Asian honeybee incursion in Queensland and considers banning Australia's bees.
Honeybee Blues will be screened on SBS on December 1st at 7:30 PM. Check your local guides for TV times and changes.
The film is produced by Susan MacKinnon and Anna Cater and directed by Stefan Moore.