Hi Everyone,
 
This week I found American foulbrood for the first time ever in one of my
hives. I hived a small swarm of unknown origin on foundation in new woodenware,
a single deep box.  The classic symptoms where all there when the bees drew out
the comb: bad smell, shotgun brood with honey mixed in between brood, dark
colored brood, scale along the bottom cell wall the entire length, brood
strings out when pierced with a toothpick.  I burned the hive completely,
including the bottom board, bees, frames, wax, hive body, and covers.
 
None of the other hives in the same yard showed any sign of infection.  They
had terra patties all winter long and through the spring.  The new swarm was
not medicated and it was about 200 feet from the rest of the hives in the yard.
 For some reason, I did not put it right next to the others.  I looked in the
Hive and the Honey Bee and also in the ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture and neither
answers several questions I have about AFB, so I'm asking you.
 
1) How easily is this disease spread?  Do I need to discard the hive tool I
used to inspect the infected hive or sterilize it somehow, wash or replace my
bee suit, etc?  Can propolis contain the spores too?
 
2) At what temperature does AFB or its spores die?  Would melting in a solar
wax melter kill it, or is this not hot enough?  (I haven't done this nor would
I intentionally do it, I just want to know.)
 
3) Should I pull the supers from all the hives in the yard and medicate now
even though they don't appear sick, or is this overkill because they had terra
patties this past winter and spring and will get them again in the fall?
 
4) How long is TM-25 effective when fed as a patty after it is removed for
supering?  Will a colony with AFB spores develop AFB during the summer when
supers are on with no medication if it has a terra patty throughout the rest of
the year?
 
5) I have seen no signs at all of AFB in any of my other 17 hives, but am
paranoid now.  Should I attempt to sterilize my extractor between supers from
different hives somehow?  I don't share equipment among hives, but some bees
from the sick hive could have drifted into the others, even though it was 200
feet away.  Could AFB be present in supers too, or just in brood chambers (I
use two)?
 
6) If I had medicated the infected swarm from the time I hived it, would it be
healthy now, or would the spores always be waiting to cause disease?
 
Is there anything I haven't mentioned here that should be done at this point or
as part of a general treatment plan?  The books and web sites I visited while
trying to sort this out had lots of good information for identifying the
disease, but were lacking severly in the area of what to do for control aside
from buring infected hives, not sharing equipment among hives, and medicating
regularly.  Maybe this is all there is to do.
 
Thank you very much in advance for any help you can offer.  I feel really bad
that this happened and it was hard to burn the hive, but I knew it had to be
done.  I have always been on top of the medication, but didn't treat the one
hive I really should have.  I keep bees primarily for enjoyment although I do
sell the honey and I really want healthy hives.
 
Kris Bruland
Member of Mt. Baker Beekeepers Association
Bellingham, WA  U.S.A.