European Foul Brood (EFB )
In the UK this is a notifiable disease
- If you suspect your hives have AFB then:
- Reassemble the hive.
- Wash and sterilise all equipment
- Notify your Regional Bee Inspector
- Causes
- Bacterium Melissococcus plutonius
- Effects on colony
- Larvae are fed contaminated food
- Bacteria reproduce in mid gut
- Bacteria remove goodness from food
- Larvae starve
- This normally occurs just before cell is capped
- In AFB it is After capping.
- Colony may have to be destroyed
- Depends on the size of the colony
- Depends on the level of infection
- In England and Wales the Bee Inspector will advise
- Identification of EFB
- Easiest to see just before the brood cell is capped
- Healthy larvae should be :
- white,
- bright
- curled up tight and
- show segmentation.
- Infected larvae are:
- yellow or brown in colour
- may appear "molten"
- no clear segmentation
- distorted
- dries out to a rubbery scale on cell wall
- Hive may smell sour
- Brood pattern in infected hive
- pepper pot brood pattern
- many uncapped brood cells
- Diagnosis
- If suspected test with the "rope test"
- Push matchstick into suspect cell
- Pull it out slowly
- A string of about 1.5cms long suggests EFB
- A string of about 3 to 5 cms long suggests AFB
- A secondary infection of Paenibacillus alvei can show extra ropiness
- Effect on the apiary
- In the UK this is a "Statutory Notifiable Disease"
- You must notify you regional bee inspector
- They will decide what to do with the hive.
- Choices are:
- Treatment with Oxytetracycline - an antibiotic
- Once popular but rarely used now to prevent a build up of resistance
- Shook swarm
- A preferred method if less than 50% of brood infected.
- Colony destruction
- Nobody likes to do this but sometimes it is for the best.
- Only the colony and the frames are destroyed
- The hive can be reused once scorched or washed with washing soda.
- Prevention
- Standard apiary hygiene techniques
- Do not buy any secondhand foundation
- Any secondhand equipment should be sterilised
- Swarms should be isolated for at least two brrod cycles.