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Science Weekly

Why have Australian honeybees been put into lockdown? Podcast

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.21K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2022

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The varroa mite, a deadly honeybee parasite, has finally found its way into Australia. Varroa destructor affects every other major beekeeping area in the world, damaging honeybees and transmitting viruses across hives. Now, in a fight to contain the mite, the state of New South Wales has destroyed 1,533 infected hives and implemented a statewide standstill on bee movement. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Cooper Schouten, a beekeper and researcher, about why the mite poses such a threat to honeybees, what it means to put bees into lockdown, and what impacts this biosecurity breech could have.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian. So, so, so skin.

0:18.0

Get your morning mojo going with Mullah like Greek style.

0:26.0

Now with a new recipe, with Vitamin B6 and Vitamin D. Let's have it! Mullen Light, get the good going. At the end of June, part of Australia implemented a lockdown.

0:43.0

For it, bees.

0:46.0

New South Wales beekeepers are on red alert.

0:49.0

The Australian industry is now under serious threat from an imported mite.

0:53.0

A deadly parasite of the honeybee, called the Varroa mite,

0:57.0

has found its way into the country,

0:59.0

which until now has remained the only honey producing nation in the world free of the pest.

1:07.0

It's bad news, not just for the honey bees, but for the industries which rely on them.

1:13.0

It's been estimated that about one in every three mouthfuls of food

1:18.0

in some way involve honeybee pollination.

1:22.0

Other insects can pollinate but but the size of bee colonies makes them the most efficient pollinators,

1:28.0

something we don't want to lose.

1:30.0

So to stop the mite spreading, outside New South Wales and into other parts of Australia,

1:36.0

authorities have set up eradication zones, killing millions of bees already infected,

1:42.0

and have put hives across the region into a kind of lockdown.

1:47.8

But how on earth do you keep bees from flying around pollinating and potentially spreading this deadly mite from hive to hive.

1:56.8

And if you do manage it, what will it mean for Australia's almonds, avocados and melons.

2:04.3

From the Guardian, I'm Madelinekeeping industries, you're a lecturer at the

2:21.0

Southern Cross University in Australia and you're a beekeeper. So this Verroa might, how bad is it right now?

2:29.4

Are honey producers currently quite worried?

...

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