MG>Suprisingly there have not been any reports (that I know of; anyone heard
  >of anything different? ) of tetra resistance to AFB.  There are a rather
  >alarming number of new resistant strains of organisms reported in
  >publications, news and medical journals.
 
Hi Mike, a real good post...
 
One reason for this good news in bee medication could be that in the
US and many other places for the most part beekeepers take out the
individual hives that do not respond to treatment and treat them to the
fire pit so we are treating mostly healthy hives. Now the story could be
different if we only treated 100% diseased hives and did not treat the
hives without symptoms. Even then I must say that the loss reported from
AFB is really not that much lower today then it was when beekeepers had
nothing but fire to treat the disease, about 1/2 of 1% to 2% total loss
per year. But I will never forget a story a good beekeeping friend of
mine who also was a county bee inspector once told me of one of his own
local close beekeeping friends that was never to concerned about his own
loss from AFB and how in his job as bee inspector for over 25 years he
had burned a number of hives in his friends operation that was in excess
of two times his friend every had at any one time. So AFB is something
that should not be overlooked in anyone's bees...even today when our
attention is on other problems AFB continues to take its tole and must
be controlled when detected, I have preference for the fire pit.
 
There may be other things at work with AFB which some have called a
disease of the "hive bees" because it is seldom found in the escaped
populations. Again this could be because of the good old survival of the
fittest rule, but one would think after reading the popular science on
the subject that if one hive in the wild went without treatment they all
would soon have AFB disease or all would dead in a season or two.
 
Maybe now that so many say the escaped bees are all dead we should take
a closer look as this population as it is rebuilt in the future by
African bees as others have predicted.<G>
 
MG>There are many different descriptions for the mechanism of resistance or
  >the processes leading to the advent of resistance.  I believe that the
  >harder the pressure placed on a population the quicker surviving rebreeding
  >individuals can and will develop resistance.  Perhaps this may be the exact
  >reason that AFB has not shown resistance to tetra.  Tetra does not outright
  >kill the organism that causes AFB rather it suppresses the symptoms.  AFB
  >is probably still operating at a low level (like a cold virus), even in a
  >tetra treated colony. The disease does not manifest into a colony killing
  >situation because of the treatment but the bacteria can still be found.
 
The same idea can be used to justify chemical treatments for vampire
mites that in themselves may not be the real killer only the vector
for other pathogens but by reducing their numbers the bees are able to
overcome the real problem. The problem as I see it is the total load of
deleterious materials in use by beekeepers and how we know when to stop
using them, and do stop. Some beekeepers have told me of their first
use of chemically treated strips several years ago and how they would
check the bottom board a few days after treatment and found it red with
dead mites, and today they seldom find a mite after treatment but will
continue to treat from now on...I suspect this is OK for the chemical
industry, but also would think that when this same beekeeper again
starts to find large numbers of mites he may be using a chemical that no
longer is effective for what ever the reason. This is a common problem
with others in production agriculture who now are in a continual search
for other ways to control pests other then chemicals and use a mix of
technologies such as chemical, biological and cultural to only reduce
the damage from pests which at one time was a post harvest job at the
packing house and remains one even with all the good control in use
today. Some still insist that without chemical use it would be worse but
slowly others are demonstrating that this is far from the truth...for
such crops as almonds that today require a hands on up close eyeball
inspection of each and every single nut sorted and/or graded by hand or
with space are scanners that only replace labor but are equal in cost.
 
MG>Tetra suppresses the major symptoms boosting a colony so that it can
  >overcome the devastating effects of AFB.  Be careful not to become a tetra
  >junky.  As a hobbyist I choose to limit my use of chemicals in my hive (
 
This is always a good idea to be careful but I would like to present
something that I learned the hard way about EFB which can be more costly
in one season then AFB is in a lifetime in some localities and was to
me for a season or two. The lesson is that for TM to be effective it
must be present at the earliest possible time in the brood rearing
cycle. But again if you have never experienced the horrendous loss from
this disease there is no reason to use TM or any other treatment. BTW,
the symptoms of advanced EFB are no different then PMS or bPMS, or
mites, both sizes.. All the bees that seemed healthy at last visit in
any one yard or dozens without any overt symptoms dwindle and in a short
time become very weak and may in time die. With EFB there is recovery,
not 100%, over a long period of time if good bee pasture is available or
with the introduction of TM it can be overnight for the advanced
symptoms. Other symptoms other then the normal EFB symptoms of dead
brood can be discolored brood food sometimes blue or yellow and
sometimes young bees will crawl out and die in large numbers. EFB is
more then likely a dukes mixture of bee pathogens so the symptoms can
very from area to area and it can be set off by poor spring pasture or
even poor pasture the fall before. Some plants of the past such as Jack
Ass Clover, the only native plant in America named by beekeepers after
the fact that when the bees were move into the area they would un hitch
the team and then unload the bees and have a hard time finding their
animals because the clover provided such good cover as it many times
would grow higher then a man. This was once a principle fall pasture in
central California flood lands and was notorious for EFB loss the next
spring and many beekeepers would not take advantage of this plant for a
honey crop because of their bad experiences if they had other pasture
available. Today the plant is not found in abundance and is only
called Jack Clover as most ass's in the bee industry have been replaced
by trucks and forklifts and boom loaders. Another plant that may be
indicative of spring EFB loss is the original old planting of blue gum
trees in some areas of the San Jouquin Valley. In the rocky mountains
that have good spring honey flows from dandelions EFB is also a problem
if the bees are not treated with TM as I am sure there are many more.
 
                             ttul Andy-
 
Special thanks to that famous glider pilot from England, Leslie
Bailey who put me on to how to use TM for EFB. Dr. Bailey is well
known to beekeepers for his books HONEY BEE PATHOLOGY and INFECTIOUS
DISEASES OF THE HONEY-BEE. And retired as a BEE PATHOLOGIST several years
ago.
 
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(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
 
---
 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ "Where there are fruits & nuts, there are beekeepers"