News Release 4-11-2002 |
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WVDA FIGHTS DEADLY BEE DISEASE Agriculture Commissioner Gus R. Douglass reports that staff from the West Virginia Department of Agriculture’s (WVDA) Apiary Program have been traveling around the state gathering up and sterilizing beekeeping equipment that is infected with American foulbrood (AFB), a serious bacterial disease of honeybees. According to Commissioner Douglass, 128 colonies of honeybees were found to be infected with AFB last year. So far this year, 63 colonies have been diagnosed with the disease, and apiary field inspections are really just beginning. WVDA State Apiarist George Clutter said that colonies of honeybees that are infected with AFB will die from the disease, and that other bees rob the dead colonies of any honey remaining in the hives. In so doing, the healthy bees transfer the bacterial spores of AFB back to their hive. Once the spores are introduced into a hive, they remain viable for a long time. Burning infected beekeeping equipment used to be the only way to deal with AFB. Now, the WVDA is using a mobile autoclave to travel to AFB hot spots and basically “pressure cook” infected beekeeping equipment to kill the bacterial spores, without destroying the equipment. WVDA apiary inspectors also try to isolate infected beekeeping equipment from healthy hives of bees. Clutter said that the AFB situation is becoming a serious problem for West Virginia beekeepers for two reasons. First, the success of the WVDA’s Beekeeper Assistance Program has resulted in a dramatic increase in the population of honeybees over the past five years. This, in turn, has caused many beekeepers to put their surplus bees in old, used beekeeping equipment that may be contaminated with AFB. Secondly, in some areas of the state, the bacterium that causes AFB has been found to be resistant to Terramycin, the antibiotic used to protect bees from AFB. “Nothing else is currently labeled for use against AFB”, Clutter explained. Fortunately, there is some hope on the horizon. Tylocin and Lincomycin, two antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections in livestock, are being tested for use against AFB in honeybee colonies, and initial results look promising. According to Clutter, “... the Tylosin seems to work even better than the Terramycin did.” The WVDA is currently assisting the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with its evaluation of Tylosin and Lincomycin by using the antibiotics to treat Terramycin-resistant AFB infections. Clutter said that the USDA is providing the WVDA with a limited quantity of Tylosin and Lincomycin in exchange for efficacy data collected by the WVDA. If the two experimental treatments work as well as Clutter believes they will, the antibiotics may soon receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration for controlling AFB in honeybees.
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