Garth, in writing his observations, theories, etc. about bacterial spores
and antibiotic treatment, wrote the following, which made me wonder... :
 
Assuming this is true:
 
> Recently it has been found that many bacterial spores are highly
> stable if stored in any fatty substance - they are also less likely
> to germinate. This has something to do with the fats connecting to
> the fats in the bacterial spore and stabilizing them.
 
Then this is the part I wonder about:
 
> On the other side, the inclusion of a high fat substance in ones
> vehicle for distributing the oxy-tet seems a bad move as it will
> probably result in the spores in the guts of the bees not germinating
> - or for that matter forming and not getting treated.
 
About a year (or so) ago, I was having a conversation with Diana
Sammatarro about a finding of very, very fine dropelets of oil that some
regulatory inspection had found in someone's honey and was trying to pin
down the source of.  If memory serves, she was involved in the
discussions because one of the speculations was that the beekeeper's use
of grease patties had lead to the oil being in the honey.  I came away
from the conversation understanding (I hope correctly) that it was highly
unlikely that the oil in the honey had come from grease patties because
1) The bees don't ingest the patties, they simply remove them from the
hives with their mouth parts (they don't swallow)  2) The dropelets of
oil were so fine that they were more likely to have come from an aerosol
spray can or atomizer that might have been used to lubricate the
extracting equipment  3) Even if the bee had accidentally injested some
of the grease patty, it would have had to digest the oil to break it into
such small dropelets.
 
So, what I wonder is... If grease patties are simply removed from a hive
by worker bees mouthparts, and not injested, then it seems that
suspending the oxy-tet in a high fat substance wouldn't prevent the
spores in the bee gut from germinating.  And then I wonder if it makes
any sense as a delivery system for oxy-tet at all? If not "swallowed",
how does the bee make use of the medication?  Do bees have some method of
food/medicine absorbsion in their mouthparts that I am unaware of?  Do
the spores germinate in the gut and then come floating or swimming out
(with malevolent intent), only to be met by Oxy-tetman in the bees
mouthparts?
 
Kathy
thinking we may see some trick-or-treaters on Saturday dressed as evil
AFB spores, or perhaps a new super hero...