A newly issued national biosecurity standard for beekeepers could help the industry deal with bee mortality rates, says a Canadian Honey Council leader.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued the new standard of best practices May 8 after three years of work with the provinces and the honey council.
“This is a voluntary standard, and it is a first step,” executive director Rod Scarlett said.
“If beekeepers implemented these recommendations, it certainly would have an impact on bee losses.”
The CFIA’s honey bee biosecurity list includes standards on sanitation, dead bee disposal and safe handling of inputs.
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Scarlett said most commercial bee keeping operations already follow the recommended practices, so the real benefit could come from improved practices by small-scale hobby beekeepers.
“I really think this will have more of an impact on the hobbyists,” he said.
“It will give them some ideas on better practices. Sometimes problems on the smaller operations can spread to larger.”
He said Canada has 8,000 bee operations, but only 1,000 are commercial-scale.
When agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced the release of the manual on bee operation biosecurity best practices, he said that in addition to the value of honey production, plant pollination by bees is worth $2 billion in the Canadian crop sector.
“Protecting bee health is important to safeguarding the bee industry and the Canadian agricultural industries that depend on it,” he said in a statement.
The health of the bee industry and the causes behind last year’s significant mortality rates in the Ontario industry were raised as key topics in House of Commons agriculture committee hearings last week, but Scarlett said there was no connection with the release of the industry standards.
