<[log in to unmask] writes:

I suspect that we are now sitting on a time bomb--millions of combs
containing dormant AFB spores, spread in operations throughout the
country. >

My own experience over the years points to the same.   More recently, I've seen an explosion in the number of newbies and small scale beekeepers buying nucs, rather than packages of bees from commercial providers.
Lesson learned years ago - a lot of large scale beekeepers have been routinely suppressing AFB and EFB with antibiotics.  Few provide their best, newest combs in the nucs sold.   Due to the FDA VFD, it's harder now for small scale beekeepers to obtain antibiotics.   I have anecdotal evidence from not only my only small scale experiment last year, and from what I saw around the region last year, to suggest we're likely to see increasing numbers of foul colonies.
Like Randy, I burn.  I saw two colonies with AFB last year out-of-12 from the same bee supplier.  The other 10 never did much.  Despite not showing any signs of AFB, I burned them all at end of season.  I don't need any hidden cases popping up this summer.    Jerry

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