To answer the question, absolutely I'm following it. The man who supplies my pollenizing bees is also the provincial inspector, and I speak to him about every second day. He has been inspecting the local hives for this phenomenon.
They don't really know what it is yet. As far as I understand, it's some sort of virus. It's something they have never seen before. Right now we're okay. We've already looked into having bumblebees replace honeybees, because they are commercially available. But we're very concerned about it.
I'm assuming the federal government regulatory agencies are watching the importation of American bees. At least I'm hoping we're watching the flow and the movement of bees. As Canadians, we shouldn't be accepting any American bees. If they have to get bees to Alaska, as far as I'm concerned they can take them through Russia as opposed to Canada.
But we're very aware of it, and we are very concerned.