Researchers have been forced to euthanase 250 of their breeding and production bee colonies after a varroa mite incursion near a facility in NSW's Hunter region.
Varroa mite, which has devastated bee colonies around the world, has been detected at Butterwick, less than 10 kilometres from Tocal Agricultural College.
NSW Department of Primary Industries Bees technical specialist Elizabeth Frost said it was a disappointing setback for the industry.
"Overall, 200 production and 50 breeder colonies, and nucleus colonies on top of that, have all been euthanased," she said.
Australian Honey Bee Industry Council chief executive officer Danny Le Feuvre said it was part of the industry-wide plan for eradication.
"Unfortunately, Tocal has just fallen into the red zone and those hives are no different to any other beekeeper hives," he said.
"If we are to achieve eradication, we need to remove all the honeybees from those red zones."
Plan Bee queens saved
Nearly 50 high-value queen bees in Plan Bee, the National Honey Bee Genetic Improvement Program, were able to be securely removed and rehomed.
Through a permit system, Ms Frost was able to get some queens out to areas in the blue zone for caretaking.
"We applied for a permit to conserve a limited number high-value queens," she said.
"We got 50 assessed. A couple of them just died in the introduction … they were a bit on the old side.
"It's really important to our program because, I mean, two years of selection doesn't sound like that many, but this program is a national one."
Permits to conserve limited numbers of high value queen genetics were also available for commercial queen breeders within varroa mite eradication zones.
Working to increase genetics
Mr Le Feuvre said the Plan Bee program was one of the most significant research projects for the industry.
"It's really important to try and develop a breeding program to increase genetics as well as providing data collection around those genetics and having estimated breeding values and really uplifting the industry's genetic potential," he said.
DPI researchers will refocus their efforts on developing an online course for commercial beekeepers to improve bee genetics and continue to collect records for ongoing research.
Mr Le Feuvre was hopeful it would help other queen bee breeders in the red zone who wanted to save their genetics.
"At this stage, the Tocal queens were sort of the first cab off the rank to make sure the protocol works," he said.
"And it didn't injure the queens … and now we've done that successfully, we're able to, you know, look at others that want that to happen with their hives."
Ms Frost said it could be years before hives could be re-established at Tocal.
"It could be three years from the point of the last detection of the mite in the red zone, potentially," she said.
