I have just received preliminary results from the first year of the NBU's 
Random Apiary Surveys.  Nothing earth-shattering so far - we will have to 
wait for the full picture - but they state:

'The inspection programme run by the NBU inspectorate detected significantly 
more American foulbrood (AFB) and European foulbrood (EFB) than the random 
inspection programme, indicating risk based inspections are efficient at 
finding disease.'

'The actual prevalence of brood disease in the honey bee population across 
England and Wales was found to be 24 cases in 10,000 apiaries for AFB and 
112 cases in 10,000 apiaries for EFB.'

'Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae both have a wide geographical distribution 
across England and Wales and were detected at half the apiary locations 
surveyed.'

'The probability of an apiary testing positive for Nosema apis and Nosema 
ceranae changes depending on apiary size and region.'

Best wishes

Peter

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