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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 13 Aug 2013 18:20:15 -0400
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> Just in case any novices are reading this, shake the bees into new gear, but burn the hive.

This is just the opposite of what I would recommend. If you are going to destroy the equipment, the bees should go too. You would be only saving a weakened colony of AFB susceptible bees. This is penny wise and pound foolish. 

However, treating foulbrood is a scientifically accepted procedure. Tylosin, when properly applied, can be used to treat hives infected with AFB. This is no more risky than treating an infection in humans, which is vastly preferred to amputation, the old treatment. Whether they get sick again depends on conditions, just the same as in humans. Personally, I have had hundreds of potentially lethal infections in my life, but no lasting effects. Whereas, in the 1800s people died from such infections. 

> Tylosin, produced by a strain of Streptomyces fradiae found in soil from Thailand, belongs to the class of macrolide antibiotics which contains macrocyclic lactone rings (McGuire et al., 1961; Hamill and Stark, 1964). Erythromycin is another common antibiotic of the same class. 

> Leighton (1981, 1982, 1983) in his microbial growth- inhibition tests showed that reproduction of B. larvae, a gram-positive bacterium, was effectively inhibited by tylosin at a dose around half that required for oxytetracycline. 

> The results of the two field experiments suggest that feeding tylosin at 200 mg per colony protects the colony from overt signs of AFB infection for 4 weeks. A second feeding will continue to protect the colony for another 4 weeks, or even a longer period of time, depending on colony and other seasonal factors.

> The present data suggest that tylosin is a safe antibiotic to be used in preventing or treating AFB. In addition, it appears to have a 33% longer effective control period than Terramycin. Doses of 100 mg or more of tylosin were adequate to eliminate signs of AFB infection in overtly diseased colonies.

CHRISTINE YING-SHIN PENG, ERIC MUSSEN, APRIL FONG, PAUL CHENG, GEARY WONG, AND MARY ANN MONTAGUE Laboratory and Field Studies on the Effects of the Antibiotic Tylosin
JOURNAL OF INVERTEBRATE PATHOLOGY 67, 65–71 (1996) ARTICLE NO. 0010

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