> Please explain to me the purpose of such behavior?

In an open mated population there will normally be variability in all traits.

Some honey bee strains can eat AFB for breakfast and thrive. Some break down with the slightest number of spores, and then don't clean it up, creating a hazard for all hives nearby.

The former don't breed AFB, and spore counts diminish asymptotically over time in such hives -- as long as there are no susceptible hives around.

Susceptible hives not only break down themselves, but amplify the number of AFB spores in the vicinity, potentially infecting the least resistant of other hives nearby, especially if they become weak and or die.

Eliminating susceptible hives as they are discovered greatly reduces the background spore level in the area.

Breeding for resistance works, too, but tends to be more difficult and can soon run into limitations.

I have written reams on AFB over the decades and a simple search of the BEE-L archives for my name and AFB should turn up plenty of material.

Humans are very bad at dealing with things that cannot be seen and are not predictable or reproducible and tend to make up stories that can neither be proven nor disproven.

AFB is one such subject because unless AFB breaks out, it is hidden and no one knows if it is there or not. Moreover, the background spore level in honey does not reliably correlate to detectable disease.

We all live in a bacterial soup.  Most are harmless, some are helpful, and some are only dangerous to some individuals. So it is with AFB in its various strains.

Who knows?  I know this is heresy, but a bit of AFB could even be benign for some bee strains.


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