In message  <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:
>  Gordon L. Scott, wrote, > > W. Allen Dick wrote:  > > Jean-Pierre
> Chapleau wrote:  > > > > > <deleted> > > >
>
>  One of the best beekeepers I know who really makes his living from honey
> production answered my question about selection for tolerance/resistance by
> saying: "I don't want to be the guinea pig."
>  This really opened my eyes to the whole agricultural/chemical dilemma.
> This guy depends on his bees to keep him alive. Yes, he probably could have
> avoided foul, and not had to use blanket TM treatments, but he was making
> money then, when his bees broke down with AFB, and he didn't have the time,
> or care to eradicate the AFB reservoirs.
>  Thus as in most other types of Western agriculture, the manager plays with
> chemical management models, originally implemented for ease and profit, now
 for
> survival.
 
That seems to demonstrate the problem well.
 
Here in the UK, TM treatment of bees by beekeepers is forbidden by
law (not that that stops some doing it) for two main purposes.  An
attempt to minimise  TM  resisance  and  to  avoid  obscuring  the
presense of AFB. AFB is automaticaly and mandatorialy destroyed by
fire and all equipment is scorched to sterilise it.  EFB ditto  if
it fails to respond prompty to treatment.  Fortunately, members of
the British BKA and bee farmers can get  good  economic  insurance
that  largely  covers the financial costs.  I can't of course deal
with the upset of having our bees killed.
 
Our EFB and AFB rates are pretty low here in spite of little or no
treatment  respectively  -- I don't have figures to hand but could
get them.  I don't _think_ that the low figures are because people
hide  infections  although that must sometimes happen.  We do have
government inspectors to 'police' the system.
 
In Australia, I know that many  farmers  simply  requeen  whenever
they see EFB (I don't know what they do for AFB), much as we might
for chalkbrood/sacbrood.  Most don't use antibiotics.  But then in
'oz' they have warm weather pretty well all year round so they can
perhaps handle these things differently.  I don't think  they  see
_very_ much of either EFB or AFB.
 
What happens in blanket treatment areas if the treatment stops, or
worse  stops  working?  <rhetorical>.  Sadly, in some areas of the
world, I think  agriculture  may  be  already  trapped  or  nearly
trapped into long-term chemical use.
 
I have athlete's foot (a fungal infection).  I've had  it  for  30
years  and I spend about one UKP every two weeks on treatment that
suppresses it, but never actually cures it.  I  estimate  that  at
nearly UKP 1000 worth of chemicals.
 
Ho hum...
--
Gordon Scott            [log in to unmask]    Compuserve 100332,3310
Basingstoke Beekeeper   [log in to unmask]
 
Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits!