> I am wondering (and my knowledge of AFB is limited being South African) if
> the chloramphenicol was not used by beekeepers as a remedy for AFB locally
> as opposed to in China.  Chloramphenicol would be more suitable than
> penicillin et al. because there has been very little resistance build-up
> to it. Is it not perhaps American beekeepers that are using BW honey to
> disguise dubious honey?

It is hard to imagine a beekeeper in the US or Canada gaining access to
Chloramphenicol without the use of safe-cracking tools. Both countries
tightly control distribution of the drug.  The reason is simple - human
infections that are resistant to other antibiotics are often treatable with
Chloramphenicol.

I socialize with a few doctors, and they all can tell tales of personal
experience fighting antibiotic-resistant infections that came close to
killing a patient.  We can all make jokes about the nitrofuran contamination,
but 5 minutes with any doctor or surgeon with daily hospital rounds should
convince you that Chloramphenicol needs to be held in reserve, and used only
when the alternative is death.  The local hospital keeps the Chloramphenicol
locked up, and to utilize it requires multiple levels of approval from senior
staff.

A few snippets from apparopriate web pages, first Canada:

Is Chloramphenicol banned in Canada?
This drug is banned for use in food-producing animals in Canada as well as
in a number of other countries. However, it is approved for human use in
Canada as a last resort drug in the treatment of life-threatening, severe
bacterial infections where no other treatment is available.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/vetdrugs-medsvet/chloramphenicol_e.html#4


...and, the US:

Chloramphenicol should only be used for serious infections in which other
medicines do not work... Chloramphenicol is available only with your doctor's
prescription, in the following dosage forms:

Oral Capsules (U.S. and Canada)
Oral suspension (U.S.)
Parenteral Injection (U.S. and Canada)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/202127.html


        jim (Beekeeping is sometimes a religious experience.
           Sadly, the religion appears to be Calvinism.)

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