Re Budge's study:
  " Shook swarm treatment consisted of removal of adult bees to a clean
hive containing new foundation, followed by feeding as required (without
the addition of OTC). Colonies selected for Shook swarm contained adult
bees covering at least 6 British standard brood frames (6 768 cm2 ); a
laying queen; and had sufficient time in the year to quickly and completely
draw-out the foundation and replace the lost brood. Treated hives were
moved a short distance from their original location and the boxes, floor,
feeder, queen excluder and crown board all scorched or replaced. Brood
boxes contained either new or sterilised frames fitted with new foundation.
Where possible the queen was isolated, and reintroduced after treatment.
The queen excluder was placed between the floor and the bottom brood
chamber to prevent the colony absconding (this was removed once the queen
had established a brood nest). Five centre frames were removed from the
clean brood chamber and the adult population from the infected brood frames
carefully shaken inside. Shaken colonies were fed with sugar syrup using a
rapid feeder until the majority of the comb was drawn. The combs removed
from the infected hives were destroyed by burning. "

Could someone from England better explain the above?  Was the colony shook
twice?

I'm also surprised that the antibiotic treatment was a one-time very large
dose (1000 mg) of OTC, applied only one time in sugar syrup.  In the U.S.,
the labeled dose is 200 mg, applied three times, 4-5 days apart.

The authors state that " In the current study, all 18 EFB free apiaries
located in North England and North Wales, where EFB has not been reported,
tested negative for M. plutonius. This provides some evidence that M.
plutonius may not be ubiquitous in England and Wales."

The above statement suggests that certain populations of honey bees may
remain free of EFB.  However, I find the authors' Fig. 3 to be difficult
for me to understand, since they appeared to add a log number of 4 to all
analyses, but the sample means were often below 4.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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