Secret of EFB in Britain

[Finman]

University of Sussex today:
Colonies in which EFB is confirmed will either be destroyed and burnt, if infection is severe, or treated using an antibiotic or the "shook swarm technique". Despite Statutory control for 70 years, the incidence of EFB in Britain remains high. A very poorly understood disease, and much more research is needed

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lasi/resources/beekeepers/diseases


ISSUE: In most countries EFB control advice is, change the queen. In practice it means "change genepool".

I had 40 years ago EFB in some hives when I had crossings of Black bee and Caucasian bee. Perhaps it has been some cases during 40 years but I have changed the queen and disease has went away.


Now I ask from large scale beekeepers, which have different strains of bees, do you have noticed that you may avoid EFB with changing "genepool" of bees?

Or do Britain or special parts of Britain have something special which make EFB too common?

British Isles has special weather, but how is EFB issue in Denmark and in Holland or in Normandia?

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[blackcavebees]

Poor nutrition and genetics. Most problems can be sorted by improving the stocks, but British beekeepers really don't like to kill queens for some reason. We need to get into breeding, not just increasing stocks

 

[Suzi Q]

Regarding genetics allowing bees to be more or less susceptible to efb, is it the same hygenic principle for varroa resistant bees? That bees are more likely to remove infected material quicker than otherwise?

 

[Chris B]

I've changed queens AND done the shook swarm. So can't say 100% why it didn't come back. Under 20 cases in total since I started so not a huge sample either. But I am rearing new queens across the board from the best I have, which have never shown EFB.

 

[Norfolk]

Poor nutrition and genetics. Most problems can be sorted by improving the stocks, but British beekeepers really don't like to kill queens for some reason. We need to get into breeding, not just increasing stocks

So when you say kill the Queens do you mean at the first sign of FB ?
Do you find then by doing so eradicates your problems in that regard ?

 

[mbc]

I've never had efb but I dont think my bees are in any way resistant as its not endemic in my area, and without exposure to the causative agent, Melissococcus plutonius, I doubt if they would have much natural resistance.

 

[Finman]

So when you say kill the Queens do you mean at the first sign of FB ?
Do you find then by doing so eradicates your problems in that regard ?

If i see collapsed larvae in the combs and uneven brood surface, I change the Queen at once if I have spare queens or spare hives.

That means chalkbrood because efb is very rare.

 

[Finman]

Regarding genetics allowing bees to be more or less susceptible to efb, is it the same hygenic principle for varroa

No. Immune is different than quick cleaning
In hygienic thing bees clean infected brood in time. And result is sporous brood area.
In real resistancy disease does not get step to the colony.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I came across this recent paperon lactobacilus and EFB,

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0033188

and if the lactobacillus is linked to floral sources (second paper)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22340254

then mixed good forage or rather the lack of it in monoculture agriculture could be playing a part in the loss of lactbaccilus and increase EFB in UK

But have noticed in the past that requeening can be positive with EFB infected colonies and local Asoocation's I think need to get their acts together and promote local queen breeding

 

[Finman]

colonies and local Asoocation's I think need to get their acts together and promote local queen breeding

It is drones too, whose genepool must be changed on district. It takes some years to get rid of it.

I had Elgon bees, which made furious colonies when crossed to Italians.
When I stopped their rearing, it took 4 years that the breed vanished. Genes of Elgon bees remained in surrounding wild hives or in my own genepool.

It was easy to distinguish the dark African mountain bee from Elgon mountain.
Color was special and without abdomen stripes which Carniolan had.

It took about 4-5 years too, that I managed to weed off the chakbrood sensitive genes.

 

[Finman]

.


http://www2.biologie.uni-halle.de/z...2010_Breeding disease resistant honeybees.pdf

BREEDING DISEASE RESISTANT
HONEYBEES
Ingemar Fries & Anders Lindström
Swedish University 2010

20 pages

.

.

 

[blackcavebees]

So when you say kill the Queens do you mean at the first sign of FB ?
Do you find then by doing so eradicates your problems in that regard ?

I was talking as a general observation and not from experience. As far as I know there haven't been any cases of EFB here in NI, I've only seen pictures of it in classes at local agricultural college. It does seem to regularily appear on the mainland. Is it more common in some sub-species than others?

 

[Finman]

.
A fresh report about EFB 2013

http://www.extension.org/pages/2369...isease-affecting-honey-bee-brood#.UoeWUK3xtjo

 

[Suzi Q]

I came across this recent paperon lactobacilus and EFB,

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0033188

and if the lactobacillus is linked to floral sources (second paper)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22340254

then mixed good forage or rather the lack of it in monoculture agriculture could be playing a part in the loss of lactbaccilus and increase EFB in UK

But have noticed in the past that requeening can be positive with EFB infected colonies and local Asoocation's I think need to get their acts together and promote local queen breeding

I'm a bit worried about adding thymol to syrup after scanning those papers. Would thymol have a negative effect on Lactobacillus?

 

[Finman]

.
Bacteria in the gut of Japanese honeybee, Apis cerana japonica, and their antagonistic effect against Paenibacillus larvae, the causal agent of American foulbrood.

Yoshiyama M, Kimura K. 2009


Source

Honeybee Research Group, Animal Breeding and Reproduction Research Team, National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, 2 Ikenodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0901, Japan. [email protected]

Abstract

We assessed the complexity of bacterial communities occurring in the digestive tract of the Japanese honeybee, Apis cerana japonica, using histological and 16S rRNA gene sequence analyzes. Both Gram-positive and -negative bacteria were observed, and the number of gut bacteria was higher in old larvae compared with young larvae. A total of 35 clones were obtained by a culture-dependent method, and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the bacterial population in the gut of Japanese honeybee was diverse, including the phyla firmicutes, actinobacteria, and alpha-, beta-, and gammaproteobacteria. Further investigation by in vitro inhibition assays was carried out to determine the ability of an isolate to inhibit Paenibacillus larvae, the causal agent of American foulbrood. Out of 35 isolates, seven showed strong inhibitory activity against P. larvae. Most of the antagonistic bacteria belonged to Bacillus species, suggesting that the bacterial isolates obtained in this study appear to be potential candidates for the biological control of P. larvae.

 

[Bates]

When working in Australia we had 1 apiary that had a lot of EFB problems, requeening and strengthening the colonies resolved the issue. I do not see why in the UK it is deemed to burn the hives when, as above, improvement in genetics is what is needed.

 

[REDWOOD]

So has anyone got super queens that are disease tolerant, hygienic (varroa), good natured, non swarming, non drifting, non robbing, good honey producers, prolific, conserves stores, clusters well in winter and fast spring build up, I think it would be imposable to get all traits but what are the important ones? I think Brother Adam got close however there was no varroa for him to tackle.
I often ask myself what are honeybees natural traits and what are not? should they be gentle bunnies or evil protective bees, what traits did bees have 100 years ago, are we breeding the wrong traits into our honey bees.

 

[BeeJayBee]

When working in Australia we had 1 apiary that had a lot of EFB problems, requeening and strengthening the colonies resolved the issue. I do not see why in the UK it is deemed to burn the hives when, as above, improvement in genetics is what is needed.

Hives aren't burned for EFB, that's for AFB.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hives aren't burned for EFB, that's for AFB.

Wrong - new policy with FERA for EFB now is destruction in all cases.

 

[blackcavebees]

Wrong - new policy with FERA for EFB now is destruction in all cases.

Is that a recent development? I thought if not too bad an infestation they shook swarmed into new box on fresh foundation?