Randy Oliver:
"On the other hand, we have a zero tolerance policy with AFB, and burn
without a second thought."
Randy and I have discussed how very different our strains of EFB are in our locales. And about 100 miles south of me a beekeeper last year was hit with a very virulent, infectious EFB that was OTC resistant. He lost all his bees.
After EFB ripped through my apiary last May I applied the medication-shook swarm-medication protocol. My bees responded well to OTC, and to the shook swarms, but it took me all season to build them back up again, and to disinfect every piece of equipment I owned. I had exceptional overwintering and, knock on wood, no EFB at all this year. Bees look great, had a record spring honey haul, a gazillion swarm control splits, the apiary more than doubled, and our blackberry flow should be good. And this year I have enough bees to do a decent queen run.
EFB is still seen as "no biggie", but here it can cost you your season, your line of bees, takes a ton of beekeeper labour to remediate, a ton of new equipment, and vet/meds fees assuming you can find a vet to work with. And yet, there is still a sense of shame and blame, perhaps stemming from that old advice that it is a stress related condition, suggesting your management is at fault. The idea that EFB is always resident in colonies (and only blooms in stress) is not considered accurate in the UK and Europe. I wonder if that idea took hold here to prevent quarantines? It would explain why as a new beekeeper having stupidly purchased EFB infected nucs I was told never to let anyone know I had EFB in my bees, or no one would ever buy bees or queens from me.
That attitude is the real shame as you can remediate this common condition with the right information.
https://herewebee.wordpress.com/foulbrood-101-2/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=z0B9o4GHq7U&feature=emb_logo
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