I have been following the trail of discussion of afb on this site and cannot believe where it is going. I thought most of the correspondents were capable and reasoning people.
\ AFB is a spore forming bacillus.
 \spores can stay dormant in excess of 30 years
\one scale has over 4000000 spores in it
\it takes approx 100000 spores to start an infection
\afb is spread by bee keeping practices AND ROBBING infected honey. Think of your neighbouring beekeepers, your costing them a fortune.
\spores are not killed with antibiotics
\hives with no resistance will show physical symptoms of AFB
\if you keep AFB infected hives you are giving it to your neighbour and spreading it through you outfit and yes it will be endemic at this stage ( just like small pox, plague,cholera,typhoid,measles,ect ect were) and yes you will lose a lot of gear,it will COST YOU a lot of time and MONEY to get it under control.

\ it can be bought under control when you have a thorough understanding of its biology
\ subclinical infections ie those that dont show physical symptoms can be detected with a very simple culture test and those hives can be managed as a separate unit ( I do this myself)
\ help yourselves, remove susceptible strains of bees to AFB, burn them and their frames ( the ultimate in selection, natural selection means AFB will kill them, AFB survival mechanisms mean it will spread when that hive is robbed, restocked or the gear used on other hives )
\ resistant bees wont show afb and wont get burnt.
\ treat your box's lids bottom boards to kill the spores (dip in paraffin wax @ 160 degrees Celsius for 15 minuets or irradiate )
  This gives the next lot of bees a clean start.
\ dont play with AFB it will always come back and bite you. 

     Shaun Cranfield
and yes I am from New Zealand
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