P.E.I. bees in peril

RD: I am hoping that dealing with the COVID-19 crisis might make Dennis King, the premier of P.E.I., realize that preventing an outbreak of an exotic disease or parasite is far easier than dealing with it once it has become established.

Our bees are also facing a new threat – the Small hive beetle (SHB) – and the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture seems set on a course that is very likely to bring it to our province. They have a new bee importation protocol for 2020 that does away with provisions to restrict bees from known SHB areas.

The protocol requires only 10 percent inspection of hives, and this can be done after the bees are gathered together into holding yards for shipping – so there is really no control at all over whether they are coming from infected yards. The inspection will be done by Ontario inspectors, and this year there is no plan to send Island inspectors.

Ontario has given up on controlling the spread of SHB. So has New Brunswick, which was infected in 2017 by hives from Ontario – with virtually the same import protocol that is proposed for P.E.I. this year. Then local hives spread it around that province. Nova Scotia, by contrast, locked down its border that year, and remains SHB-free. Nova Scotia is now self-sufficient, meeting its pollination needs with local hives.

So how bad is SHB? We have research that P.E.I. helped pay for, so I hope we can trust that. That research comes from the Atlantic Tech Transfer Team for Apiculture, funded by the Departments of Agriculture of P.E.I., Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, with support from blueberry producers and the beekeepers’ organizations of all three provinces. It says:

“The most considerable damage performed by SHB occurs during the larval stage. Larvae consume virtually every edible substance in the hive except for the wooden hive-ware itself. A large infestation of SHB will cause significant damage to brood, comb, pollen, and honey. Excrement defecated by feeding larvae causes honey to ferment and no longer be suitable for human consumption. Frames that have been removed from active colonies are also at risk of SHB damage. Entire seasons’ worth of honey in extraction lines can be spoiled, and valuable frames of empty wax comb can be lost if indoor storage facilities are infested.”

It is bad. It is not a parasite that you want to infect bees that are valuable to the province for pollinating our crops and native plants.

Dennis King was asked about the importation of beehives at the Leaders Environmental Debate before the election last year. The question was: “Will you commit to full inspection of beehives imported from Ontario?” He said: “If it is an issue of having a professional there, and funding, then I would be happy to reinstate the funding.”

Addressing the concerns of beekeepers, King said: “You have a willing partner in government that wants to help you succeed, and if there is anything that you think we should be doing better – and if you are giving us that feedback based on science, based on research, and based on experience – then I think it is important to live up to that.”

I have already mentioned the research on SHB. The experience is that in 2017 and every year after, hives containing SHB were imported into New Brunswick with almost exactly the same protocol that is proposed for P.E.I. this year.

The best science that is available comes from Italy, where they have been trying to prevent an incursion of SHB from infecting the rest of Europe. They have statistically quantified the amount of testing required to declare with some assurance that an area is free of SHB and safe to move hives from – but that amount of testing would be completely impossible for P.E.I. And despite spending many millions of dollars, and destroying tens of thousands of beehives, they have not succeeded in eradicating SHB from the affected area of Italy.

What P.E.I. should be doing is what I have been consistently proposing for several years: close the border, as Nova Scotia did. Beekeepers asked the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture to do this last July, but they did not listen.

The Department of Agriculture keeps saying that the programs they have for increasing the number of beehives on P.E.I. have not been working. I could counter by pointing out that those programs did not have the funding that Nova Scotia put into expanding its hive numbers, but I think that is beside the point. If we close the border and let everyone know that we are going to protect Island hives, and that a closed border is the future of pollination, then blueberry growers and processors will make arrangements with beekeepers to expand to meet demand, or they will start to keep beehives themselves. It is as simple as that. The only reason it has not happened is the department keeps resisting closing the border, and keeps bowing to pressure by a few blueberry growers and a processor who cannot look beyond the short term and see the sustainable solution.

This would be a good year to close the border. The forecast for blueberry prices is not good. Growers probably should not put large inputs into pollination. If beekeepers know that they are going to be protected from exotic pests, and if blueberry growers and processors and perhaps government are giving them the help they need, they can expand quickly, but they have to know early in the season.

I remember the day Premier King appointed his ministers. He charged them to be bold and innovative. But nothing has changed on this matter at the Department of Agriculture. Now is his chance.

Readers can sign an online petition on this matter: http://chng.it/pY9XgNz4.

Stan Sandler
Murray River, P.E.I.