The varroa mite could have been in the Hunter for years and is unlikely to have entered through the Port of Newcastle, according to a national body representing the honey bee industry.
The Department of Primary Industries initially detected the mite on Wednesday, July 22, at their sentinel hives near the port.
Appearing before a senate inquiry into the adequacy of Australia's biosecurity measures last week, CEO of Australian Honey Bee Industry Council (AHIC) Daniel Le Feuvre said the mite "probably originated away from the port".
Mr Le Feuvre said that in the days following the detection, there was surveillance conducted in the immediate area which "quickly discovered that there were hives about nine or 10 kilometres away from that original detection point that also had high levels of mites".
"The numbers of mites there were much higher than what we found at the port," Mr Le Feuvre said.
"Since we found those and have been doing more surveillance around that area, we discovered there was a whole cluster of hives in this one area around that part of Newcastle that had very high loadings.
"Theorising and hypothesising around that, we think that it probably originated away from the port."
However, Mr Le Feuvre said AHIC is unsure how the initial incursion occurred.
"There are multiple pathways there of high risk: there's a commercial airport; there's a RAAF base; there's an industrial area that imports containers and equipment," he said.
"We have no way of knowing at this stage how it got there. But it's indicating that it probably did not come in from the port.
"We also know the Port of Newcastle is a bulk-handling port, not necessarily a shipping container port, so it's also of lower risk as well."
In a submission to the inquiry, AHIC suggested the varroa mite may have been in the area for years.
"It is apparent from the hive mite loadings found around the Newcastle airport epicentre, and subsequent research and consultation, that the mites had been in the area for quite some time," the submission said.
"Epidemiological predictions suggest up to a couple of years."
"Due to funding constraints", the port's sentinel hives are not part of the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program - overseen by Plant Health Australia (PHA) - the AHIC submission said.
"As part of our industry, we provide funding through our honey levies for a National Bee Pest Surveillance Program," Mr Le Feuvre told the hearing.
"That program has central hives and catch boxes and utilises sweet netting as well across a lot of high-risk ports in the country. That is designed to be our first detection system. It's placed at the ports that we feel are going to be high-risk.
"PHA facilitated a review of all the ports in Australia and re-categorised, based on risk, what ports we would focus on. Newcastle dropped off that list as a high-risk port because it's not a container port, it's a bulk handling port."
AHIC made a number of recommendations to the inquiry to improve biosecurity measures, including the introduction of a tariff on all shipping container imports to fund surveillance.
"Given that shipping containers are one of the highest risks for the importing of pests into our country, that there should be a levy across all containers, regardless of what products they're carrying or where they've come from, to provide some equitable funding for surveillance programs," Mr Le Feuvre told the hearing.
The Newcastle Herald has approached the Department of Primary Industries of comment.
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