Dan,
I might be the bee lister of whom you are referring.  I have kept bees for 68
years,
since 1933, most of those years keeping from 50 to 135 colonies spread in 4
counties in both Maryland and Virginia, and have suffered AFB either 5 or 6
times (not 13 or 14), burning a total of about 15 colonies; and I have never
used TM one single time because I do not want to hide the symptoms of AFB.
Rather I want to
find it, and destroy that colony before other colonies, honey, tools, honey
house,
all bee equipment such as hive bodies, frames, queen excluders, bottom
boards, inner covers, etc., are infected with AFB.

In 1922, one colony out of every 3 or 4 colonies over the entire U. S. was
infected with AFB when Dr. James I. Hambleton became Chief Apiculturist of
the United States Dept. of Agriculture.  His first act was to establish bee
inspection programs
in all 48 states, and intensely educate beekeepers about AFB. Dr. Hambleton
and my
family attended the same church in Bethesda, MD and Dr. Hambleton became my m
entor when I started keeping bees in June of 1933.  Because of the bee
inspection system, AFB infection over the U. S. is down to about 1%-2% of all
colonies now,
but increasing because some states have discontinued bee inspection and new
beekeepers have erroneously been led to believe that TM kills AFB.  The fact
is that
TM only hides the presence of AFB and keeps the bees alive until a dose of TM
is missed.  This is almost identical to the use of insulin to treat a
diabetic, whereas
a diabetic can maintain an active life for a long time as long as they get
their insulin dose every day.  My wife is a diabetic.

The old cliche is true - An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  I
much prefer to diligently keep my apiary clean of AFB then be saddled with
diseased hives
that required treatment at least twice each year and know that I can't sell,
loan, or give away a single piece of woodware to anyone else because it is
diseased and will infect their clean bees.

I would like very much to see TM banned from sale or use with bees.  That
would surely get rid of many beeHAVERS and make them into beeKEEPERS.

I will wager that you do not daily take some antibiotic as preventive
medicine,
because your doctor can explain to you that by using that antibiotic daily
makes
the germs that you are trying to avoid RESISTANT.

Perhaps you are not aware of it, but Shimanuki and other scientists have been
working on a new strain of AFB that is resistant to TM, possibly caused by
the continued use of TM over the last 40 years.

Lastly, both Shim and I were speakers in October at the annual meeting of
Tennessee Beekeepers, and Shim gave out the following figures:  One AFB larval
scale contains about 2.5 billion AFB spores.  The LD50 chance of a hive
becoming infected with AFB is the presence of just 35 spores in the hive.
Hence, just ONE
AFB larval scale has the potential of contaminating 70,000 bee hives. 2.5
billion
divided by 35 = 70,000

I certainly don't want to HIDE the symptoms of AFB, but rather I want to see
those symptoms so I can destroy that colony before it infects my other
colonies.

I hope that I have convinced you that the use of TM is detrimental to
beekeeping.

George Imirie
Certified Master Beekeeper