I find this discussion on resistant AFB both fascinating and enlightening. 
From this side of the globe (Australia) its very difficult to guage the 
extent of AFB as a continuing problem for beekeepers in USA. Certainly 
Varroa dominates the discussions on hive management protocols in the 
American journals, and the impression I have been left with is that AFB is 
only a minor problem. Perhaps that is not true? Or perhaps its because of 
the relative ease with which you are able to access and use medications to 
deal with the problem? This discussion makes me wonder if the development 
and spread of resistant strains of AFB has changed the USA ball game!

Some years ago I was fortunate enough to meet up with Marla Spivak at a 
conference here in Australia, which allowed me to ask her a leading 
question. Her answer confirmed  what I suspected to be the case, and this 
discussion indicates to me that nothing has changed since then.

To background where I am leading in this post, AFB has always been a major 
problem for beekeepers here in Western Australia, where we do not have 
access to any medications to deal with the problem. Burning the hive, or 
destocking and irradiating or wax dipping the equipment, have been our only 
approved means of restricting the spread of the disease. Neither have 
eliminated or really controlled the problem down to a minor nuisance level. 
And while I am there let me state categorically my agreement with Randy's 
statement "The suggestion by another to simply remove single diseased combs 
is a recipe, IMHO, for disaster." It IS a recipe for disaster and I speak 
from experience!

I had followed the historical references to the "Brown Line" and the late 
Steve Taber's writings on Hygienic behaviour in bees which exerts an 
incredibly strong influence on controlling diseases of bee larvae, as well 
as Marla's writings on the subject, and had become sufficiently convinced to 
embark on an all out attack on AFB in my own outfit via using the bees own 
defence mechanism. A selection evaluation of my own stock revealed only a 
handful of hives that exhibited Hygienic Behaviour, and these became the 
foundation stock for my own breeding programme. (I have posted on Bee-L 
previously about the process I went through which will be in the archives.) 
Fortunately, success came very quickly, which was very reassuring, and since 
then AFB has not been an issue. Consequently I have become literally a "pain 
in the a..." to my colleague beekeepers, since now I constantly sing the 
praises of a solution to a major problem which is in their own hands but 
which they choose not to use! Allen has done a similar thing via the 
excellent pages on Hygienic Behaviour on his website, and he too has been an 
inspiration to me, for which I am very grateful.

So what was the question I posed to Marla all those years ago?

 It was this, "Why, if Hygienic Behaviour is so good at controlling AFB, and 
so many of the advertisers in the American Bee Journal are offering Hygienic 
stock, is resistant AFB becoming such a problem in the USA?"

I will leave you to speculate on her response, but the fact that this 
discussion is taking place is testament to its truth.

Peter Detchon
AFB free in Western Australia

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