>'Elimination of AFB' by Mark Goodwin & Cliff Van Eaton 1999 talks about
handling honey supers on page 20.

I was surprised to find that this book is available in an indexed format on
the following website: 

 

https://www.beekeeping.co.nz/disease/index.htm

 

In part they observe that, 'A trial was conducted to determine the
importance of wet honey supers in the spread of AFB. Twenty supers of honey
were collected from colonies with light AFB infections. Most of the supers
came from colonies with less than 5 larvae/pupae exhibiting clinical AFB
symptoms. These infections are of the type a beekeeper might miss.

 

The honey was extracted and the supers and frames put onto 20 AFB-free
colonies the next spring. The 20 colonies were placed in an apiary with a
further 20 colonies that did not receive such supers.

 

There were no obvious symptoms of robbing when the supers were placed on the
colonies. However, samples of bees taken from each hive two days later all
tested positive for AFB spores, including those from the colonies that did
not receive AFB supers. Four (20%) of the colonies that didn't receive wet
supers, and 9 (45%) of the colonies given infected honey supers, developed
AFB infections.

 

Extracted honey supers are probably the major factor in the spread of AFB in
New Zealand. Because this is the case, the proper inspection of hives when
the honey is taken off, and the effective control of the subsequent movement
of those supers within a beekeeping outfit, are essential parts of any
programme to control the spread of the disease.'


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