Another one about to jump species.

[Greengage]

Could this be true, Could varroa jacobsoni jump species just like Varrora destructor.
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-species-varroa-mite-threatens-european.html

[prakel]

Was a time when not so long ago when that's what we thought our bees did have!

[gavin]

Could this be true, ...

Looks convincing to me. There are some big name on the author list so I think that we just have to accept that the list of pathogens of the honey bee just grew by one. Nice find, thanks.

[fatshark]

jacobsoni is an interesting one when we consider imports. We already know that many/most packages and nucs imported will have Varroa destructor lurking somewhere within. Here we have a new pathogen for honey bees which looks so much like the one we already have that no-one can tell the difference.

Do we just accept that because it looks the same we already know how to deal with it? Or what ... ?

[SDM]

Bad news for the Aussies as they've recently found jacobsoni there.

[greengumbo]

jacobsoni is an interesting one when we consider imports. We already know that many/most packages and nucs imported will have Varroa destructor lurking somewhere within. Here we have a new pathogen for honey bees which looks so much like the one we already have that no-one can tell the difference.

Do we just accept that because it looks the same we already know how to deal with it? Or what ... ?

Its hard to see what the alternative is FS. Not likely that imports will be banned and too difficult to screen. I would hope the current destructor treatments would also be effective against jacobsoni.....and all the other varroa types and tropilaelaps when they emerge.

[Pete L]

Bad news for the Aussies as they've recently found jacobsoni there.

Could be bad news for us then, as some import queens from there.

[Calluna4u]

Could be bad news for us then, as some import queens from there.

Not quite as free as that. You can now only import from Western Australia. A long way from any of these incidents.

Also...that state only has Italian ligustica type stock, and is not really suited to most UK regions, so the risk of these bees coming to Scotland other than via a secondary vendor making nucs up with them is negligible.

[Pete L]

Not quite as free as that. You can now only import from Western Australia. A long way from any of these incidents.

Also...that state only has Italian ligustica type stock, and is not really suited to most UK regions, so the risk of these bees coming to Scotland other than via a secondary vendor making nucs up with them is negligible.

Lets hope so, although the treatment used now would be just as effective on them I expect.

Even if they arrived in Plymouth they would soon spread north to Scotland within a relatively short time.