Federal department stopped training sniffer dogs to detect bees, missing chance to prevent varroa mite's arrival

Sniffer dogs weren't trained to detect bees for seven years, including when the Varroa mite arrived to Australia. (Supplied: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment)

Australia's sniffer dogs haven't been sniffing for queen bees and were not on the beat when the deadly varroa mite arrived last year.

That's despite the threat of the bee parasite devastating honey bee populations and causing tens of millions of dollars of disruption to food crops across Australia.