> Belgium is not an island and the 'burn only' route is followed. So do
> the countries surrounding us. We have very, very few cases of AFB
> here. Thus, it likes to work. In which way this leads to 'false
> reporting and inaccurate statistics' is a mystery to me.

Just to set things straight, I have nothing against burning.  I do it
myself sometimes ans sometimes recommend burning (or melting), 
especially if only an isolated hive is involved and it is totally 
overcome late in the season.  In our area, any hive with noticeable AFB 
in late summer or fall is not going to winter and will be robbed in spring.

I do, however have a lot of good reasons and a philosophical bias
against compulsory burning and a regime where treatment is banned and 
arbitrary burning is enforced.

In Alberta, we do not have compulsory burning and I suspect out AFB
rates are as low as anywhere, at least judging by what I saw while
inspecting a few years ago.  Medhat may wish to comment.

Our authorities do have the legal power to seize and burn infected 
equipment, but in my lifetime, I only know of one case where that power 
was exercised.  There may be more, and the threat is always there, but 
we have found education, peer pressure and moral suasion far more powerful.

Instead of enforcement, Alberta has a culture of information sharing and
education which encourages disclosure and seeking assistance.

Many find it most practical to burn the occasional hive found with
breakdown, and I am told that finding only a handful of AFB hives -- or 
none -- in an outfit of thousands is typical, and that includes outfits 
which do not routinely medicate for AFB.  In the hobby crowd, however, I 
hear that Uncontrolled AFB is not uncommon.

Many Alberta commercials do not routinely treat prophylactically, 
although some find do it necessary, either due to location, their bee 
stock, their management, or their history.  Usually, they eventually get 
on top of the problem and reduce and eventually eliminate routine 
treatment as the problem recedes after a few years of careful monitoring 
combined with melting, burning, and annual irradiation of any empty 
deadout brood chambers.

In my travels, I did recently see one outfit that was badly managed and 
at risk of losing a lot of hives.  I saw no effect on neighbouring 
outfits, however.  I assume the operator will either learn, attract 
strong enforcement, or go out of business if he does not smarten up as 
AFB hives do not make money.

I also saw one large outfit where a few cells occurred in a fair number 
of sampled hives, but no hives were found to be broken down with frames 
of AFB.  They had not treated prophylactically for a number of years. 
Such an outfit will respond to an operation-wide OTC or preferably 
Tylosin fall treatment quickly, but would require the burning of tens of 
thousands of boxes and frames if burning were compulsory.  The labour 
and capital expense would be astronomical.

I can't say that AFB is a big problem in Alberta, and we are not an
island or police state.  I don't know the infection rate, but I would 
guess it is around 1% or less on a hive count basis, and maybe higher on 
a beekeeper head count basis.

Having seen how statistics are compiled and the politics of such stats, 
I very much doubt the accuracy of the numbers which are presented 
regarding just about any aspect of beekeeping, especially AFB, and find 
the stats for any set of jurisdictions useless in comparing methods.

Alberta beekeepers are free to use whatever control measures they find 
effective and do so.  No one need to be afraid of openly discussing 
problems for fear of draconian intervention and any action advised or 
enforced in extreme cases considers the best economic solution for the 
beekeeper involved.

That solution could conceivably mean burning everything, especially 
where a beekeeper has proven to be totally incapable of managing, the 
outfit is in ruin and beyond salvage using culling, irradiation, and 
drugs as indicated, but that is an extreme situation and very rare.

The topic is not a simple one, and I suppose if the brainpower, 
expertise and education resources are not available, or if a simple 
solution is necessary, burning is the answer.  (Burning is a final 
solution to urban blight, people we don't like and many other problems, 
too, but we don't usually make it our first choice).

Having observed, considered and tried the many alternatives over four 
decades I have concluded that burning is not always the best solution 
from an economic or social point of view, either for the beekeeper, or 
society.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html