bananas kill Chalkbrood?

[Emma]

Hi DR,
Yup, me too! - I was quite convinced by now that there was nothing in it.
Beebase reckons acetic fumigation works against chalkbrood - according to their info sheets on "Hive Cleaning and
Sterilisation" and on "Fumigating Comb". (Tho' the 2 leaflets do give slightly different methods, & different amounts of acid - I went for the one which was easiest!)
I certainly hope it works - feels like I've spent at least a day by now tidying up combs, carting them to the polytunnel, & piling them in a sealed tower of boxes. Even if chalkbrood does have a function, I'd rather keep it to a minimum.

[prakel]

Thanks for posting this, EK.Bee and Prakel, it's fascinating. I'd thought the chalkbrood-vs-foulbrood idea was a completely unfounded internet rumour.

There's some further interesting reading here:

The aim of this study was to test a range of fatty acids against a diverse range of Australian honeybee bacterial pathogens. Some overseas isolates were also included in this study for comparative purposes. This study has demonstrated that both P. l. larvae and M. pluton are sensitive to a range of fatty acids. Of the 28 fatty acids tested in this study 15 showed activity against P. l. larvae. On average, in decreasing order of activity the six most active were undecanoic, homo-y-linolenic, capric, 7,10,13,16-docosatetraenoic, linolenic and 13,16,19-docosatrienoic (Table 3). Of the 28 tested in this study 21 showed activity against P. l. larvae in Feldlaufer’s study. The six most active in that study were lauric, myristoleic, palmitoleic, linoleic, ricinoleic and undecanoic.

The activity of the fatty acids against P. l. larvae was usually less than that reported by Feldlaufer et al (1993b)

Fatty acids – an alternative control strategy for honeybee diseases by Michael Hornitzky 2003

https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/downloads/03-028

None of the eight fatty acids protected larvae from developing EFB. There was no significant difference between the mortality of the infected control larvae and infected larvae which were also treated with each of the fatty acids.

Can fatty acids and oxytetracycline protect artificially raised larvae from developing European foulbrood? by Thomas Giersch, Idris Barchia, Michael Hornitzky 2010

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...JmnFT7TzIe6QCQ

[The Drone Ranger]

On bbc radio in the car heard a bit about this website
http://retractionwatch.com/the-retra...racted-papers/

Not everything published is correct
sometimes a mistake if made
sometimes data is laundered to bias the conclusions
sometimes to retain funding data is even made up

Not saying in any of these cases above but if it seems wrong then it may well be wrong is a not unreasonable assumption

[busybeephilip]

Interesting website, unfortunately there is a lot of pressure on young researchers to produce data for their PhD's, MSc's etc that occasionally results can be made up and it is likely that this will become more common as pressure on the university system for publication output increases, I have also personally known of persons being caught out doing just this.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Phillip
Cold fusion is one of the projects that drew in huge amounts of money based on findings which could not be repeated and conclusions that ignored alternative explanations but made careers and lifestyles for the main researchers in the field

Or the ongoing belief in magnets properties to cure ailments despite its dubious roots in mesmerism
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2556642/ an example of a trial
Or this
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/...-blood-flowing