Scot said:
Perhaps it is more accurate that wax gets recontaminated with AFB on exit
from the glands, but I am fairly convinced that AFB is found on new wax also
when a swarm absconds a AFB infected hive.

Before days of mites articles on American Foulbrood (AFB) were numerous. I
go along with Scot on this one. If a million spores will fit on the head of
a pin then it would be hard for me to believe a swarm ascounding from a
badly infected AFB hive would not carry some spores to the new location.
Shook swarm method or not.

Many tests were ran by the bee labs back when AFB almost wiped out the U.S.
beekeeping industry around WW2.

All methods had their drawbacks including shook swarming & BURNING. Nothing
was working until the sulfa drugs were discovered at the University of
Missouri to stop the active disease.

Allen Dick has said on BEE-L (and I concur) that beekeepers which had AFB
problems and have treated with terra  for many years and then stop seem to
not get AFB . Why we are not sure but I have heard from many beekeepers
which had huge AFB problems and only started treating on a regular basis
that when they would miss a treatment an outbreak did not occur like they
thought it surely would.

AFB has been the scourge of beekeepers since the start of beekeeping. Like
most scourges the disease becomes worse at times and then almost non
existent. When non existant beekeepers believe their methods are the reason.

Before we learned the small hive beetle( SHB) was less of a problem in dry
weather in the south many beekeepers claimed many of their methods of
control worked. Then the rains came and the SHB was back proving *some of
those methods did not work*!

Bob

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