Ari:
> First question that comes to my mind is that has anyone seen a study that actually proves that beekeeper can spread foulbrood with gloves and hive tool in normal work ?

This particular practice was NOT mentioned in the recommendations below:

> Changes in management practices that would be expected to diminish disease virulence and transmission 

> Modern evolutionary epidemiology suggests that behavioral practices can greatly affect the future course and virulence of disease. Undoubtedly, apiculture creates numerous conditions where horizontal pathogen transmission is favored over vertical transmission. Thus, theory suggests that apiculture per se will select for more virulent honey bee pathogens. As a consequence, beekeepers could benefit if they instituted simple practices that reduce horizontal transmission. For example, the size of apiaries can be limited, and colonies can be placed to minimize drifting. Furthermore, the transfer of bees and brood between colonies should be limited as should all practices that increase the risks for within hive defecation of bees or crushing of bees.

Ingemar FRIES and Scott CAMAZINE  "Implications of horizontal and vertical pathogen transmission for honey bee epidemiology" Apidologie 32 (2001) 199–214

However, as a State bee inspector, I made it a point to not wear gloves, wash my hands and equipment frequently with alcohol, and when a diseased hive was encountered, tools would be thoroughly disinfected before being used on another hive. We also used the minimum amount of paraphernalia [eg. smoker, hive tool, jar, etc] thus reducing the number of things that would have to be disinfected. 


Peter Loring Borst 
Ithaca, NY  USA 
+42.347999, -76.495239

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