PB:
>I have been involved in a discussion about the current approach to treating AFB. Several people have made the assertion that when they encounter it, they simply removed diseased brood combs, and apply no other treatment. They go on to state that they are "breeding for resistance" and usually cite your work. What is your reaction to such assertions?

MS:
>You are asking two separate questions.  I think it is a good idea to remove diseased brood combs. It might be better to remove all combs and start the colony on foundation, but removing at least some combs is a good idea.
>
>The second part: removing diseased brood combs is not really breeding for resistance.  Breeding for resistance would entail not propagating any colony that has disease, and raising queens from colonies that do not show any symptoms of disease. In our experiments we found that even some hygienic colonies came down with clinical symptoms of AFB after we challenged them by putting combs with AFB scale in the colonies.  But most of these colonies recovered on their own, without chemical treatment, or removing combs.  They simply were able to remove the diseased brood from the combs, but it took a few weeks to "get a handle" on it all.
>
>So, removing diseased combs by a beekeeper is "hygienic"  but that is a human behavior, and is very different than hygienic bees removing diseased brood from the cells.  The hygienic beekeepers are not breeding for hygienic behavior in the bees.  I encourage them to continue the practice, but please don't confuse it with the bee breeding I am doing. (The best sources on breeding come from Laidlaw and Page's book on queen rearing and breeding.)
>
>Best, Marla Spivak