> very different kind of world from the one I know.  I have long been
intending to
> write an article to question the conclusions in their yellow bible and its
> applicability to North America, but heresy is not an easy job; it involves
a lot
> of hard work.

For much the same reason, I wouldn't want to take on trying to reply to some
of Allen's statements regarding the NZ condition, which he admits is another
world to your own.  It is, particularly in that we have not been feeding
antibiotics to manage AFB for the last 40 years.

Beekeepers here have a completely different mindset and set of skills to
draw on in approaching AFB as an impediment to our businesses.

I would, to some degree, probably find common ground in the phrase
"applicability to North America" - the book (while perhaps interesting to
North Americans and others) was simply not written primarily with you in
mind...

I will make one specific comment on one assertion:

> The book in question relies on unpublished studies, easy sweeping
generalizations,
> unsubstantiated assumptions and wishful thinking to prove its thesis

I'm not even sure it would be fair to say that the book puts forward a
'thesis' - rather, it (in relating to the conditions it was prepared for)
describes a series of practical steps that can be taken to reduce and
ultimately eliminate AFB as a problem within an outfit.  Perhaps more
importantly, the book relies only on things that have actually been done.

And it references 35 articles and books - admittedly, there is one of them
that has not actually been published!  I would suggest the book is more
scientifically based than more than 9 out of 10 other books about beekeeping
topics...

Nick Wallingford
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