Police have raided half a dozen properties in three states as part of a probe into how the deadly varroa mite reached Australia, the bee industry says.
The Australian Honeybee Industry Council says federal police have targeted properties in southern Queensland, northern NSW and Tasmania in recent months.
The raids were part of a federal investigation led by the agriculture department, CEO Danny Le Feuvre said.
He said the department had expressed confidence there would be an outcome soon.
"We know there's been half a dozen raids around the eastern seaboard," Mr Le Feuvre told AAP.
"The industry is strongly demanding answers around this. We hope it's something we can satisfy industry with, in understanding how it got here and closing that pathway off in the future."
AAP has sought comment from the department. Federal police referred questions to the department saying it's their investigation.
The department has previously confirmed the existence of Operation Decker, which is linked to the incursion of the mite, an exotic parasite that weakens and kills honey bee colonies.
It was originally found at the Port of Newcastle in June 2022 and has since spread to hundreds of other sites in NSW, with the destructive pest now so entrenched eradication has been deemed impossible.
One possible pathway is the illegal importation of live bees, but it may also have hitched a ride on cargo.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Le Feuvre appeared at a federal parliamentary inquiry on invasive fire ants and was asked about lessons that could be learned from the varroa mite incursion.
He said the bee industry had been forever changed, adding another layer of complexity at a time when farmgate prices were low and the hits from natural diasters keep coming.
Record number of beekeeping businesses were for sale across the industry and anxiety was high.
In terms of lessons for the fire ant incursion - which is now decades old but still subject to eradication efforts - Mr Le Feuvre said authorities must get buy-in from the public.
"If you do not have public support for an eradication program, particularly in the communities that the program is most affecting, then non-compliance and undermining of the response will ultimately create failure," he said.
He appealed for longer term help for the bee industry, after varroa mite forced the destruction of tens of thousands of hives.
"Once deemed non-eradicable ... there's only provisions for a 12-month transition to management program, cost shared by the affected parties, after which time our industry is effectively cut loose and expected to pick up the pieces while dealing with this new pest."
He said longer term recovery packages followed things such as natural disasters and COVID.
"But not for this response, and not for our burnt out beekeepers."
Australian Associated Press
