DECEMBER 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
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Apiarists wary as new prescription rules kick in Beekeepers’ access to antibiotics will become more difficult
by PETER MITHAM VICTORIA – The province is ensuring
beekeepers around the province won’t be stung by new Health Canada policies governing over-the-counter medications that take effect this month. Since the 1950s, beekeepers have
had over-the-counter access to antibiotics such as Terramycin and Mylan for use against colony diseases. But as of December 1, livestock producers need a vet’s prescription to buy the drugs. Size doesn’t matter, but most vets
aren’t familiar with the diminutive animals that pollinate crops. “Veterinarians are very smart but they
know, by definition, very little about bees – about insects in general. It’s not their trade,” provincial apiculturist Paul van Westendorp told the BC Honey Producers Association meeting in Victoria at the end of October. While commercial beekeepers may have well-established veterinarian-client-
patient relationships, van Westendorp has concerns about the vast number of hobby beekeepers in the province. BCHPA membership totals approximately 750, while the 2016 federal census of agriculture reports just 303 commercial apiaries. “I’m particularly worried about the small-time beekeeper who has two or four
hives in the backyard,” van Westendorp said. “How are you going to get a veterinarian out there? And how do you get a prescription from a veterinarian who doesn’t know anything about you?” To address the problem, the BC Ministry of Agriculture has worked out “kind of a back-up plan” that will position provincial staff as intermediaries on behalf of beekeepers – the ones they know about, at least. “We will have field confirmation by an apiary inspector to confirm that there is a disease in the operation or in the apiaries,” van Westendorp explained. “A
sample is submitted to our labs for confirmation, and on that basis one of my colleagues, or [the ministry] in the name of the chief veterinary officer ... will issue that prescription.” Since the province must respect the
federal requirement that a veterinarian- client-patient relationship exist before issuing a prescription, beekeepers must be registered with the province, something they’re required by law to be. “You cannot expect the government to write out a prescription for you if you are not even registered as a beekeeper, which is required by law,” van Westendorp said. “[For] those who have wished to always operate under the radar, it’s becoming more difficult.” Van Westendorp suspects that many
FILE PHOTO
professional beekeepers have probably stocked a couple of years’ worth of medicine but sooner or later they will require a prescription. On the other hand, the province’s
annual spring survey of beekeepers indicated that just 13% are using antibiotics. This is a good sign in a province that stopped recommending the prophylactic use of antibiotics in bee hives after the first signs of antibiotic- resistant American Foul Brood were noticed among bees at Simon Fraser University in 1997. BC remains the only province to have done so. With such a low rate of antibiotic use, van Westendorp said beekeepers seem to be wising up. “We have become very cavalier about the use,” he told the meeting. “[But] the total usage of antimicrobials in beekeeping is not as great or as intense as I thought it was.” This being said, the Canadian Honey Council is working to secure a licence
for the antibiotic fumagilin, and hopes to have a manufacturer by fall 2019. CHC will hold worldwide rights to the product. While research has documented some detriment to bees, many feel the benefits outweigh the problems.
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