Eric,
 
Thanks for the reply.
 
My personal method for dealing with AFB is to look for it when I inspect
colonies.   If I hit a positive colony (it's only happened once so far), our
local bee inspector gets a call (takes care of the legal requirement to
report AFB).  If he agrees the colony has AFB, then he kills it (he has
access to better chemicals for the job than I do), and the colony is sealed
and the equipment taken to my garage for bee-proof storage until winter.  All
honey in the contaminated equipment is thrown out.   In the winter, the
Maryland Dept. of Agriculture runs its fumigation chamber, and in goes the
contaminated equipment.  After fumigation, the gear is ready for re-use.
 
The bee inspector also does an independent inspection of my colonies roughly
once every three years.
 
Any used gear I buy also goes into the fumigation chamber as a rouitine
precaution.  I have had good results using fumigated gear that came from
known AFB colonies.
 
I guess that my foulbrood rate is statistically about average for Maryland
(roughly 1% of all Maryland colonies inspected in a given year come up with
AFB).   With foulbrood this rare, I see no reason to use Terramycin.
  However, others in Maryland do routinely use Terramycin.
 
The key to my method involves ensuring that only equipment that is known to
be AFB-free is used in the colonies.
 
Thanks again for your thoughts.   At least I don't live in Florida, where I
understand the laws for AFB requires burning all contaminated equipment.
 
W. G. Miller
Gaithersburg, MD