Opinions were expressed on the Bee-L wether drugs should be used or not to
control AFB.  Every beekeeper has to make his own choice according to his
personnal situation.  My preferrnce goes to the no-drugs approach whenever
possible.  The problem in North America is that the drug option is so common
that no efforts have been deployed to develop alternative controls.
 
It would be nice to be able to know easily wether spores are present in your
colonies and at what level.  Dr H. Shimanuki published a few years ago a paper
on how to assess the presence of spores in samples of honey.  Here in Quebec a
group of 17 professionnal beekeepers (Club Api) had this year their honey tested
for the presence of AFB spores using Dr Shimahuki's method.  The results
indicated that some samples did not contain any spores and other contained some.
They did not show what was the relative number of spores in each sample.
Beekeepers with "no spores" honey had no AFB problems.  Where spores were found
in the honey, some beekeepers were experiencing AFB problems but not all of
them.  Some beekeepers not using drugs and whose honey contained spores had very
healthy hives (in appearance).
 
The method we used is not a simple and it lacks precision.  We heard that
counting spores in honey is practiced in Australia.  Anybody knows where we
could find information about this?
 
A precise analysis of AFB spores in honey could be a very useful tool.  It could
tell a beekeeper what his personnal risk factor is with AFB.  He could then
adapt his management to the situation.  It could be used by a beekeeper using
drugs but wishing to switch safely to the no drug approach.  It could eventualy
be used by bee inspection services to target the visits of inspectors in the
context of limited  budgets.
 
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' JEAN-PIERRE CHAPLEAU                            eleveur de reines/bee breeder
'
' Chapleau & Courtemanche enr.      vice-president of the Canadian Honey
Council'
' 1282, rang 8, St-Adrien, Quebec, Canada, J0A 1C0
'
' [log in to unmask]                            tel./phone (819) 828-3396
'
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