> I believe if we were allowed to look at records in China that a
> paper trail exists for every amount of chloramphenicol produced
> in China exactly like the paper trail which exists for
> chloramphenicol produced in the U.S..

The only records one could expect to find in China in
regard to this activity would be criminal records.

Its not even legal to use chloramphenicol in China
since 1999.

http://www.seafood.com/news/current/88631.html

  "...The European ban on Chinese shrimp and prawns was
  announced last January after inspectors found chloramphenicol,
  an antibiotic banned in Europe, the United States and, since
  1999, in China as well.

  A Chinese reporter who traveled to Fujian and Guangxi, two
  southern coastal provinces with large amounts of aquaculture,
  found banned substances were widely available.

  'The production, sales and use of antibiotics for fish breeding
  is out of control,' a report by China's official Xinhua News
  Agency said in December. 'Even veterinarians are selling it.'

  Though China banned chloramphenicol in 1999, several hundred
  factories were producing it in 2000, the Xinhua report said.

  Shrimp farmers sometimes don't know what substances are banned
  and complain of getting little guidance from authorities. When
  disease breaks out - which is not uncommon because of China's
  short production cycles and high-density farming - farmers
  often throw in whatever antibiotic or treatment is available."

But are beekeepers mere prawns (sorry, "pawns") in this game
of shady characters selling antibiotics from the trunks of cars
as "miracle cures" for epidemic shrimp death problems?

If many of China's beekeepers also have small-scale shrimp ponds,
or are near shrimp ponds, this would be a valid scenario in which
the husbandry of the shrimp might well result in a contamination
of a water source used by the hive.

The only problem with this scenario is that we still lack
a mechanism to explain how evaporated nectar from plants
(honey) would become contaminated by the use of contaminated
water by the colony.  I am pretty sure that bees do not add
gathered water to honey, but instead, work hard to evaporate
the water out of the nectar.  :)


        jim (All beekeeping is local,
         except on Bee-L, where
         all beekeeping is international.)

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