Western Cape Takes Action to Eradicate Contagious Bee Disease

Tuesday, 19 May 2009 06:57

Western Cape Takes Action to Eradicate Contagious Bee Disease While a clear elimination strategy does not yet appear to be in place, destruction of beehives infected with American Foul Brood Disease in the Western Cape is expected to begin within days.

This highly contagious bee disease could be devastating for the deciduous fruit and seed industries as bees are used to pollinate commercial crops.

The next two and a half months will be critical as hives need to be taken to farms by mid-August. This will raise the risk of spreading the disease if the hives are infected or moved to infected areas.

Last week industrial stakeholders and representatives of national and provincial departments of agriculture met in Pretoria and George to formulate a strategy to prioritise the mid-August deadline.

Priscilla Sehoole, Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said, “a progressive eradication plan had been agreed upon.” Infected hives were to be destroyed followed by continual surveillance and eradication as infections were discovered. This was to continue until the geographical limits of the disease were identified. This would be overseen by a “command post” on site in the Western Cape.

The first confirmed cases of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa were reported in the Western Cape in February this year. Mike Allsopp of the Agricultural Research Council said that since then six beekeepers have reported cases. He said that bee colonies were worth about R5 billion to the country.

The American Foul Brood disease is highly contagious among bees, killing infected colonies whilst it does not affect humans or other mammals.

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