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Wed, 10 Jun 2020 18:31:43 +0000 |
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" how very different our strains of EFB are in our locales"
EFB does seem to show different characters in different places. Part of the issue may be how hygienic bees are today. I see EFB pretty regularly in weak nucs. It generally shows up after a new queen has mated and started to lay for a couple of weeks. All of a sudden I see spotty sealed brood and eggs and very young larva with little to nothing in between. Then a week later eggs and young larva and nothing older. My bees are pretty hygienic and in most cases a sick larva gets hauled out before I can tell naked eye it is sick. Likely the most hygienic bees we have are Minnesota Hygienics and they are well known to have no resistance at all to EFB. So, being hygienic does not help control the disease and makes it harder to spot. I see it happen all summer in just mated or real weak nucs. Even right in the middle of a major honey and pollen flow. I have never seen a single case in a production hive and never seen it in a strong nuc of ten or more frames. I have never seen it in March or April when bees are weak and beat up coming out of winter and pollen is spotty due to weather. Even a nuc with a new queen is generally ok if there are five frames of bees.
The standard three treatments of terra has so far stopped every case I have seen and none have reappeared after treatment that year. I swap equipment so much that following a given box all the time is hopeless. But, I know for sure boxes that were treated last year have done fine for me the following year in many cases. So, I am not convinced contaminated equipment is an issue in my case.
I really wonder if we are all dealing with the same bacteria? It would be nice if some bacteria researcher would gather samples from various infected hives and compare and see if they are all the same or if we have several sub species. Since it has been made so difficult to get terra I think at some point this disease could be a major issue for small bee keepers.
My vet tells me the Ohio rules basically make it impossible for him to prescribe. The Ohio rules require him to take a course training him on the disease. The problem is no recognized course exists. So, he gives me advice on how to home brew antibiotic formulations with stuff that I can legally buy over the counter. That may work for me due to my science training. But is worthless to most small bee keepers. The commercial guys do not have a problem. They will just buy what they want from Mexico or India or China. It sure seems to me our government has created a problem and not given us any reasonable alternative solutions. Why in the world could you not take a comb sample and an EFB test kit to a Vet and have him run the test and prescribe based on that test? In Ohio my Vet risks loss of his license if he does that. Rather, he has to take the course that does not exist and also do a site visit to the apiary and inspect hives which no Vet is going to do unless he happens to keep bees himself.
Dick
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