A word from appointed SABIO representative, Dawid Smit.

20 May 2009

Dear Beekeepers and Interested parties
 
1.  Notwithstanding some accusations flying around ( mostly from a single source ... ) your appointed SABIO representative ( myself ) and those from DoA, ARC and Western Cape Agriculture are working fairly hard to address all issues pertaining to this project.
 
2.  We do this in a constructive workshop format which has started last week Tuesday already and had a second meeting today which will be continued tomorrow and probably Wednesday .  The group is called the AFB Joint Operations Centre and at the moment are busy unpacking the strategic decisions of the past month or so into achievable and practical plans and protocols.
 
3.  I can assure you this is no easy task with many facets and as we come at crossroads we by times need to even query the policy decisions and proposed regulations already on the table .  This take time and patience --- not meaning though that we take our time .  We are aware of the fact that time is running out between now and the start of the main ( and earlier ) pollination season.
 
4.  The current discussions pertain to analytical capacity, compensation, definitions, protocols, legislation, training, data management, communication, sampling, certification, exemptions, etc and marrying all this with the economical needs of beekeeping in a very tight time frame .  A fair amount of all this need to be sorted out before the inspectors go into the field.
 
5.  As soon as we have a final strategy and action plans we will let you know .  What we can say is that the aim and effort will be to simultaneously establish the spread of AFB through SA, keep it from spreading from where it is currently found and try to eliminate it --- all within the next 2-3 months.
 
6.  You can help by not lending out your ears to pessimists and moaners, try to distinguish between facts & rumours, provide constructive comments on proposals and report clinical symptoms to Mike Allsopp at the ARC Stellenbosch or myself when you suspect it.
 
Regards
 
Dawid Smit
 
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