I've been thinking about the new oxytetracycline resistant ABF that has suddenly
been appearing in numerous places and which seems to be spreading, and realise
that beekeepers don't realise that it is a =whole new disease= (more on that
below).  As such it deserves and new name, and in honor of where it first
appeared, I'll call it South American Foul Brood or SAFB for short.

Only a few years ago, a noted American researcher reportedly investigated
contemporary AFB compared to AFB that had been in storage for many years and
concluded that there had been little, if any, change in response to
oxytetracycline over the years: oxytet worked as well as ever.  Then we heard
that AFB in Argentina was exhibiting resistance to traditional drugs.  Now we
have found resistance in the USA and Canada.  I am sure it will appear worldwide
shortly -- at least wherever Argentinean honey is imported and sold.

That is not to say that all resistance necessarily originates in the Argentine,
but we do know that AFB can be very contagious in the absence of resistant bees
or drugs that are effective, and we do know that honey carries AFB spores very
nicely.  We also know that honey is 1. discarded in open sites, 2. honey drums
are re-used, sometimes without washing for feeding bees, 3. hobbyists (and
occasionally commercial beekeepers) sometimes purchase honey to feed their bees.
You don't have to be a rocket surgeon to figure out the rest...

The mechanisms of micro organisms developing resistance are quite interesting.
In the process of putting off writing this article last night, I sat down and
watched TV and, serendipitously, discovered a program that detailed the search
for new antibiotics, and which filled in the background of some of the vague
ideas that were nagging me while I was snowboarding at Lake Louise last weekend.

The long and the short of it is that antibiotics are generally derived from the
compounds that micro organisms have developed to hold off competitors.  As we
know, penicillin was discovered because someone noticed germs would not grow
near a specific mold colony in a petrie dish in a bacterial culture experiment
gone awry.  I am certainly no expert, and I am sure we have a few on the list
who may be able to help out here, but my understanding is that antibiotics can
be classified into families and have specific mechanisms that they use to
disable or limit growth in certain classes of micro organisms.  I have heard,
for example that oxytetracycline and sulfathiazole have similar mechanisms for
AFB control, and that if the bacterium is resistant to one, it is resistant to
the other.  However, there are known drugs with different mechanisms that can
attack oxytetracycline resistant AFB causing bacteria.

What I learned watching TV last night was that micro organisms swap DNA on a
regular basis when they come into contact with one another and that resistance
in one bacterium can and will transfer into others that come into contact.  This
may explain why suddenly we are seeing resistance appear all over the place in
types of bacteria that have previously been isolated and very limited in their
habitat such as those causing AFB; perhaps they are meeting more ubiquitous
types of bacteria that are resistant and the resistance is transferring.
Apparently many types of bacteria associated with livestock operations are now
resistant to many antibiotics and it is not hard to see how AFB organisms
(notice how I avoid naming them) could have come into close contact.

Anyhow, maybe -- and just maybe, separate mutations of oxytetracycline resistant
bacteria are appearing in different locations spontaneously due to exposure to
other resistant varieties, but until that is proven, I would place my money on
there being only one -- or at most very few -- original mutations and that all
other cases are spread from them.  That brings me (at last) to my point:

SAFB is a new contagious disease.

It is distinct and separate from the AFB that is already in the environment and
your equipment and mine.  It MUST come from *elsewhere* if we are to experience
a breakdown.  There is a negligible chance that it will arise spontaneously and
locally.

The problem is that it looks exactly the same.  The only way you know that it is
different from the variety we have all come to know and love, is that it does
not go or stay away when you use oxytet in normal amounts.  This is the problem,
and the reason it will spread like wildfire.

You won't know you have a fatal problem until it has had a chance to spread --
if you have been counting on drugs to control AFB, as we all do in North
America -- unless you burn or melt all outbreaks immediately, and unless you
actually inspect all frames regularly.  This is a daunting task for huge
commercial operations.

Since SAFB will have to come from outside if it is to appear at all.  The likely
sources are a neighbour who has bought diseased equipment, a migratory outfit,
or someone putting contaminated Argentine honey where bees can get it.

The upshot of this fact, once beekeepers catch on, will be that beekeepers will
suddenly become much more interested in what their neighbours are doing and in
governmental controls on everything from movement of bees to sale of honey that
contains spores.  Some isolated countries already are operating this way, and
this new variety of AFB -- if it gets there -- will have relatively little
impact, but for those of us in free trading and free movement areas, there will
be a huge change.

This is unless we get new, effective drugs for alternate treatment into place
NOW.

As I have said before, I think that if Steve Tabor is right and that breeds of
hygienic bees can control AFB, this may be the ultimate solution to SAFB and a
significant defence against other problems.  But, in the meantime, we must be
certain that we are prepared with new drug(s) and observant or else much of the
equipment and bees in North America will make a huge bonfire.

allen
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