Nancy wrote:   "OTOH, euthanizing a colony for European Foul Brood, is probably not necessary."

In the UK EFB used to be treated by destruction in the same way as AFB and was rare.  Since the turn of the millennium however, they have used other, non-destructive, methods such as anti-biotics and shook swarming.  There now seems to be a lot more EFB around than there used to be and, if I were a cynic, I might think that the change of rules was part of a job creation project for the Bee Inspectorate!
I once accompanied a Bee Inspector for a day doing follow up inspections on apiaries in which she'd done shook swarms some time earlier because of EFB.  Several of them were re-infected.  In one apiary, consisting of a very neat row of National hives along a hedge, the owner had applied Apiguard (thymol gel) to all the hives a week earlier with the intention of using our visit as an opportunity to add the recommended second dose to reduce Varroa.  All the hives had mesh floors with Varroa trays beneath and, with one exception, there were  lots of mites on each tray. The exception was the one that had been shook swarmed for EFB, which had returned.
Therefore it seems to me that shook swarming is more effective against Varroa than against EFB!
I should point out that in the UK the British BKA started, many years ago, a private insurance company Bee Disease Insurance to which members subscribe when they pay their BKA subs.  They pay compensation to beekeepers for equipment destroyed by Bee Inspectors, but there's so little AFB nowadays that they make a good profit and they use it to make donations to bee research projects.


Chris








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