A risk analysis has been prepared for the ministry of agriculture to try and minimise bee diseases arriving from overseas meanwhile complying with international trade agreements.

According to the reports, New Zealand's National Beekeepers' Association fears the arrival of European foulbrood disease is inevitable if honey imports are allowed. The disease can severely deplete or even kill hives.

Although the government's risk analysis only proposes allowing honey imports treated to kill the disease, beekeepers fear that because the disease is highly contagious, just one drop of infected honey not caught by the treatment could spread throughout bee hives in New Zealand within a season.

This would mean a drastically reduced number of hives available for pollination of apples and kiwifruit. Beekeepers warn the initial effects could be as bad as those caused by the varroa mite. And although the disease could be bred out of the bees after several seasons, experience in Australia has shown on-going effects for a few years after that.

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