Peter Dillion wrote

> Must take alot of organisation and willpower to set up and maintain such
> a system.

The maintenance is not so bad as I used it as part of the QA program we use.
With the new food safety laws, we have to have all these records including a
bio-security section.  The idea was we made these records as simple as
possible.

> 1. What has been the consequence on AFB occurrence in areas that have
> applied this method of containment?

AFB occurrence is still above what I would like to see mainly because there
are beehavers out there who are a source of infection and those who will not
use a barrier system.  The one big advantage of the barrier system is that
it will allow the beekeeper to minimise the amount of infection in the
apiary, thus minimising the amount of infected material.

We have any infected material irradiated so we can then use that material
again.  You only need 10kgy to kill AFB but we have our equipment done at 15
kgy as this will then kill EFB and chalkbrood.  10kgy is not enough for EFB
or chalkbrood.

> 2. If AFB is chronic, is it worth setting up a control such as this,
> when the relaxation of antibiotic use would usually allow AFB to raise
> its ugly head in a widespread and chaotic manner?

In mainland Australia we do not use antibiotics for the control of AFB.  So
the only chronic cases are beekeepers who do not regularly check their
brood.  You don't have to check every hive every time.  Just those that are
not peforming.

The records I keep with the barrier system I use allow me to identify hives
that are not performing satisfactorily.  I check these to first determine if
it is a disease problem.  If not, then the queen is suspect and the hive is
requeened.

The other plus is that it will identify those that produce a lot of honey so
these queens can then in turn be used in a bee breeding program.

> It appears to me that many areas are so far down the systematic use of
> oxytet. just to control the apparition of AFB that it would be a huge
> risk to attempt to start such a procedure.

That is a call that the individual beekeeper would have to make.  I see it
written often that those feeding do not have a problem with AFB.  If it is
not a problem, then if they stopped using I assume, by what is written, that
they would not expect to have a problem with breakdown from AFB.

Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA

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