As Ghislain remarks, “Belgium is not an island and the 'burn only' route is followed. So do the countries surrounding us.”

Certainly France follows the European directives and burn is the only option. It has resulted in a lower occurrence of the disease. From 2002 to 2005 120 colonies in 24 apiaries were studied. (http://www.anses.fr/Documents/SANT-Ra-EnqueteAbeilles2005.pdf) 32 to 39% had AFB.

More recently, (http://www.ansespro.fr/bulletin-epidemiologique/Documents/BEP-mg-BE54-art20.pdf) 
Questionnaires were sent to 100 inspectors in the metropolitan départements. 78% replied giving data for 81 departments.
There were 290 suspected cases of which 121 cases were confirmed.

“In which way this leads to 'false reporting and inaccurate
statistics' is a mystery to me.”    And to me also.

Bil, France

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