2023 Resolution
Return to Battery Box Shipping
STATUS: CARRIED
RATIONALE / PURPOSE FOR RESOLUTION:
- Whereas more than 350,000 queens are imported in Canada every year
- Whereas queen importation protocols require cages along with attendants as opposed to previously accepted battery boxes to allow for easier inspection for small hive beetles
- Whereas the economic damage caused from small hive beetle in northern climates is well documented and known to be minimal
- Whereas sperm viability has been proven to be negatively affected when queens are transported with attendants alone
- Whereas Poor queens is consistently listed as a top reason for overwintering loss in CAPA overwintering reports.
- Whereas the cost to Queen breeders to manually add attendants results in an increased cost of imported queens
- Whereas the queen importation protocol is clearly costing the industry vastly more economic damage than the economic risk it is intended to prevent
- Whereas A new battery box design developed by University of Alberta allows for queen inspection without risk to Border Services Inspection staff.
BE IT RESOLVED THAT:
The Alberta Beekeepers Commission request the Canadian Honey Council lobby CFIA to reconsider and reexamine the queen importation protocols and return to battery box style shipping
RESOLUTION BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Effect of shipping boxes, attendant bees, and temperature on honey bee queen sperm quality (Apis mellifera), Andrée Rousseau, Émile Houle & Pierre Giovenazzo, Apidologie (2020) 51:724-735
Name of producer submitting resolution: Jeremy Olthof
Name of person seconding resolution: Ron Greidanus
