In another Forum there is a discussion on AFB. It got me to thinking and wondering about some things I have been taught and have often questioned. 

Such as in handling an AFB infected colony I was taught to wash my hive tool and smoker bellows and hands immediately after collecting the Lab sample and closing up the infected hive.

I understand the basic idea of cleanliness, like washing one's hands after using the toilet or urinal. But, has anyone actually done a study showing how infectious a hive tool, a smoker bellows, or one's hands are after handling an infected hive and its parts? Knowing basically what it takes to infect a hive, I find it hard to believe that there would be enough AFB spores on a hive tool to infect another hive. Has anyone done a study to show it does? Or are we simply putting on a show?

I was also taught, when dealing w/ an AFB infected hive, to kill the bees and to burn all of the comb and then to scorch the supers and other wooden ware. Has anyone actually determined how infectious wooden ware is? How many AFB spores are on the insides of AFB infected beehives? On the bottom board? The inner cover? The cover? A migratory bottom board/pallet? (I know no one who scorches pallets.) And how would what is on the surface of the wood be picked up by bees and transfered to nurse bees and fed to larvae in the necessary dose? Where is the scientific proof?

So, again, are we putting on a show? Or actually doing good by these practices?

I know an Apiculturalist who, when in an apiary, tosses his hive tool on the ground and scuffs it in the dirt w/ his foot and then picks it up and scrapes it w/ his pocket knife, all before ever even using it in a beehive. I don't know if he does that at the previous yard after using his hive tool or not. He has a very shiny hive tool.

I have worked w/ a handful of commercial beekeepers and am a commercial beekeeper myself. I have never seen any of them wash a hive tool or smoker. And they and I are not run rampant w/ AFB. Some of them may treat and treat regularly, but I don't. My AFB rate is annually in the low single digits. Less than 1% the last few years actually. 

So what's the real story? I know AFB can be a real problem and that if left unchecked and unnoticed it can spread through an operation, over time. But what about what I have asked about? I asked here because y'all seem more scientific based quite often, more so than simply opinionated.

Thanks for whatever intelligent replies may come.

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