National Bee Pest Surveillance Program

bee-pest-surveillance-program

The National Bee Pest Surveillance Program is an early warning system to detect new incursions of exotic bee pests and pest bees. The program involves a range of surveillance methods conducted at sea and air ports throughout Australia considered to be the most likely entry points for bee pests and pest bees.

The National Bee Pest Surveillance Program’s primary objective is:

Exotic bee pest and pest bee early warning
To act as an early warning system to detect new incursions of exotic bee pests and pest bees. This greatly increases the possibility of eradicating an incursion and limits the scale and cost of an eradication program.

The program is jointly funded by the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, Hort Innovation, Grain Producers Australia and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources. In-kind contributions for the implementation of the program are provided through each state and territory Department of Agriculture as well as volunteer beekeepers. At a national level, PHA coordinates and administers the program.


Video

national-bee-pest-surveillance-program-videoPart of the Bee Biosecurity Video Series produced by PHA and Plant & Food Research NZ, this video gives an overview of the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program.

Watch the video on YouTube

Bee Biosecurity Video Series on the BeeAware website


Fact sheet

About the National Bee Pest Surveillance Program

This summary document includes the objectives of the program, methods used for surveillance, the role of PHA in the program and the sources of funding.

 


National Bee Pest Surveillance Program Steering Committee

The National Bee Pest Surveillance Program Steering Committee has an advisory role to ensure delivery and progression towards full implementation of National Bee Pest Surveillance Program, including monitoring the uptake of improved surveillance initiatives in their jurisdictions. The committee comprises representatives from Hort Innovation, Australian Honey Bee Industry Council (AHBIC), the state and territory governments, the Australian Government and Plant Health Australia. The committee meets twice a year and is chaired by a nominated representative from AHBIC.

Communique from Meeting 2 (May 2019)
Communique from Meeting 3 (November 2019)
Communique from Meeting 4 (May 2020)
Communique from Meeting 5 (November 2020)
Communique from Meeting 6 (June 2021)
Communique from Meeting 7 (December 2021)
Communique from Meeting 8 (April 2022)