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Thread: AFB - Alyth

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    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Default AFB - Alyth

    Just in from the Scottish Government:

    http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Bee...rmed-1b36.aspx

    Bad news for the beekeeper concerned - either this can put a small scale beekeeper out of beekeeping if it is their one and only colony, or someone (and their neighbours) find themselves unable to move to their heather crop.

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    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    This is distressing Gavin. Is this an area that has had repeated AFB outbreaks over the years? NO** postcodes appear quite regularly on Beebase for AFB, but this outbreak is recorded as Alyth? on Beebase, so I'm not sure precisely where it is.

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    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post
    This is distressing Gavin. Is this an area that has had repeated AFB outbreaks over the years? NO** postcodes appear quite regularly on Beebase for AFB, but this outbreak is recorded as Alyth? on Beebase, so I'm not sure precisely where it is.
    There was an AFB find there in 2011 so a repeat is not too surprising. Alyth will be the nearest big town, it could be many miles away.

    Sadly this is a disease that can pop up just about anywhere. There are some places where it reappears including after a long period with no discoveries.

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    Is it carried by swarms in swarmy years like this one has been?

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    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Isn't the advice to never feed a swarm for 3 days so any foul brood spores can get 'incorporated' into the wax they draw. Certainly the NBU suggest that swarms spread foul broods. I presume someone has shown that spores incorporated into wax lose infectivity ...

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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post
    Isn't the advice to never feed a swarm for 3 days so any foul brood spores can get 'incorporated' into the wax they draw. Certainly the NBU suggest that swarms spread foul broods. I presume someone has shown that spores incorporated into wax lose infectivity ...

    I did a bee diseases course at Auchincruive a good few years ago and they probably told us but I forget so easily
    What were we taking about again?

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    Colonies can carry AFB spores for a good few years before showing clinical signs and so can spread it easily before you even know spores are present.

    I remember reading somewhere that starving a swarm triggers a lot of grooming and during this the spores on the bees are basically all ingested and end up in their rectums (recta ?). The bees then defecate outside and away from the hive and hey presto a cleaner swarm !

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    Must dig out Les Baileys diseases of the honey bee although its a bit dated now I suppose

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    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    And to add to greengumbo's contribution above there are lots of references on the web to the chemical and heat resistance of the spores, together with a reference (here - http://www.oie.int/fileadmin/Home/en..._FOULBROOD.pdf) stating specifically that spore-contaminated wax is known to be a source of infection. I presume that this is surface contamination, but since wax reengineered by bees (QC's, drone to worker comb or vice versa etc) even leaving a swarm to build their own comb for three days may not ensure it doesn't spread spores in the future.

    Also interesting to note that spores can infect humans and cause fatal septicaemia (RIEG S., BAUER T.M., PEYERL-HOFFMANN G., HELD J., RITTER W., WAGNER D., KERN W.V. & SERR A. (2010). Paenibacillus larvae bacteremia in injection drug users. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 16 (3), 487–489.).

    Finally, the first reference above lists the LD50 for 24 hour old larvae as ~9 spores, but that they are uninfectable after 53 hours.
    Last edited by fatshark; 16-07-2015 at 05:43 PM. Reason: their, not there … what a terrible edukashun I had

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    Quote Originally Posted by greengumbo View Post
    Colonies can carry AFB spores for a good few years before showing clinical signs and so can spread it easily before you even know spores are present.

    I remember reading somewhere that starving a swarm triggers a lot of grooming and during this the spores on the bees are basically all ingested and end up in their rectums (recta ?). The bees then defecate outside and away from the hive and hey presto a cleaner swarm !
    Spores can lay dormant for years in equipment but generally "colonies" will rid themselves of afb if they don't get clinically sick with it. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16420974

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