Protection urged for Australian honey bees

Australia's honey bees, crucial to worldwide food production, need more protection from foreign invaders that could potentially wipe out their population, a parliamentary report said yesterday.

Australia is a major supplier of queen and hive bees to North America, Japan and the Middle East, cashing in on its standing as the only country not to suffer from a deadly bee mite known as the varroa destructor.

But the varroa mite has been found in bees in neighboring Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, raising fears it could soon breach Australian borders.