As I have said, the use of antibiotics is frequently justified, as in the paper by Woyke, by increases in production. This is an indirect way of showing that fumagillin controls nosema, of course, but on the face of it it shows a correlation between antibiotics and production increases. I don't know if a counter study has been done on hives without nosema, to see if similar boosts would occur. However, sub-therapeutic doses are being applied to other livestock for this purpose. 

> Antibiotics were discovered over 50 years ago and have since been widely used in the livestock and poultry industries. They represent an extremely important tool in the efficient production of pork, beef, poultry meat, and other animal products. When used at low (subtherapeutic) levels in feeds, antibiotics improve growth rate and efficiency of feed utilization, reduce mortality and morbidity, and improve reproductive performance. Antibiotics are also used at intermediate levels to prevent disease and at high (therapeutic) levels to treat diseases in animals.

The mechanisms by which antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents enhance
performance are not completely understood. Possible modes of action are
generally grouped in three categories: (1) metabolic effects, (2) nutritional effects,
and (3) disease control effects. The latter, which seems to have the most support,
implies that antimicrobials suppress the microorganisms that are responsible for
non-specific, subclinical disease

Animal Biotechnology
Volume 13, Issue 1, 2002

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