Recent Here & Overseas Research Honey Bee Viruses in Australia

摘要

Australia has one of the healthiest honey bee (Apismellifera) populations in the world, but beekeepersstill need to manage a range of established pests and diseases. While we have good understanding for some of these pathogens, there are significant gaps in our knowledge of honey bee viruses. Molecular tools have become standard practice overseas to detect honey bee pathogens but are not widely adopted in Australia. This puts Australia's biosecurity at risk and has raised concerns overseas that importing Australian honey bees could spread unwanted viruses. As a consequence, the US has prohibited imports of Australian queens and packaged bees and other export markets may be at risk.